The Count of Azkaban
by goldenthestral
Summary: Harry is sent to Azkaban. The thing is he didn't even know. He had been unconscious at the time. Voldemort won and is now the reigning monarch. Harry is back for revenge. My tribute to The Count of Monte Cristo. R&R.
1. Chapter 1

**The Count of Azkaban**

**Chapter 1**

_The year is 2010 and there is no more war in the wizarding world._

It is a well known fact that history is written by the winners. Guess what, it's true.

However, as expected, the winner was not the side led by Dumbledore or the side led by the ministry of magic. The winner was the heir of slytherin, Tom Marvolo Riddle, aka Lord Voldemort and now the reigning king of the Wizarding world.

One would have thought that there would be a mention of the boy who lived as one of the key players but alas, it was not to be. Here is what happened.

In the summer of 1996, Harry Potter was a veritable reflection of how he felt inside, dead, or at least emotionally. His godfather was dead and he had been betrayed by none other than his own headmaster, the beacon of light, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Due to his grief, the passage of time had lost its meaning to him and it had been so for some time. Actually, he had gone under a magical comatose.

He was never aware that somebody had entered the Dursley's home and killed someone using his wand, actually his guardians. He was not even aware that sensing underage magic, the ministry of magic had sent him an owl. Then again, sensing the unforgivables, aurors had come and found him on the floor of the hall, his wand in his hands and his relatives killed all over. There had been three Avada kedavras, an Alohamora and a crucio found during the priori incantem which had been performed during his trial.

(((o)))

Due to the visibility of the crime and the fact that Fudge wanted nothing more than to discredit the boy-who-lived. One law that had been overlooked was to allow for a trial was to allow trials of persons who were medically unfit.

Seeing the proof and also the fact that Harry was in magical coma, which can only be caused by over use of magic as in three Avada Kedavras at one go, headmaster did not even attempt to wait for or look for an alternative explanation. He let the trial go ahead and betrayed the trust of an innocent child.

The only reason that the dementor's kiss had not been administered was that Madame Bones was on the Wizengamot. She was the sole dissenting vote and by the laws of the Wizarding world, only an unanimous vote of the wizengamot can give a dementor's kiss decree.

They did the next worse thing. At the very bottom of the Azkaban are thirteen rooms. They are encircled by an unknown magic which makes the occupant face their own fears. It is rumored that the dementors were created due to a failed experiment where a well known alchemist had tried to replicate the magic surrounded here. Every one who had ever been put in one of these rooms had gone insane and died a few days after coming out. Harry Potter was thrown here and forgotten. Thought about as a mad deranged killer, the Wizarding world washed its hands off him.

(((o)))

It did not help that there had been no attacks from the dark lord's minions. For the whole one year, nothing was done. Without any movement, the resistance weakened and everybody forgot until a year later, on the 31st day of July 1997, the enormous forces of the dark lord infiltrated the Hogwarts with the help of Wormtail using the tunnel at the back of the sweetshop in hogsmead.

Dumbledore barely escaped the attack. Similar coordinated attacks were held on the ministry of magic, St. Mungo's and the residences of various members including Cornelius fudge.

Twenty four hours later, the minister of magic, after an emergency session of Wizengamot, introduced monarchy over the wizard kind. Lucius took over as the minister of magic. Cornelius was given a dementor's kiss. Many of the pure light families fled the land and settled in various neighboring countries. Barring the inclusion of muggleborns into the Wizarding society, nothing changed. That is nothing that was ever mentioned.

(((o)))

The goblins fled and the Gringotts vanished. That place is still like a black hole in the middle of the Diagon alley. Over a period of next few days, several owls appeared in the houses of all the wizards having an account at the Gringotts. All the gold and contents of the vault were given after a magical receipt in a bottomless trunk.

Lucius, with his son Draco, opened the new bank for the Wizarding kind.

Everything was the same. The daily prophet was being controlled by the dark lord instead of fudge and ninety nine percent of the population didn't give a damn. These were the people doing ordinary jobs in their ordinary lives. Their lives had been reduced to going office and coming back.

The entire Wizarding prison was emptied and the dark lord made decisions to the many lives as per his wishes. No sign of the young wizard was found there. Probably the only person, who remembered his nemesis, did ask for him. But there was no sign of existence. The secret rooms at Azkaban were a secret as is. In absence of aurors and other officials, no record was found of the young boy who lived. As the connection between both of them had broken very soon after, he did not think much of it.

(((o)))

After a few years, in the way of preparing for his new conquests, lord Voldemort forgot all about the green eyed boy and indulged in the fruits of his labor. With the help of scrolls at the department of the Unspeakables, he had gone through a ritual whereby his body had stopped aging. He was not an immortal, but he was not far from it.

With the center of the Wizarding world in his fief, he was now running for the position of the chair-man of Le CIGS, the International Council of the Wizarding Kind (Le Conseil International du Genre de Sorcellerie).

By now, even a footnote as to the life and times of the boy who lived had been erased. All that was left were legends and stories. It was as if he was a fictional character, a creation of some over imaginative mind. But still a few minds held the brave accounts, the minds those who had been there, the unimportant many.

(((o)))

When the attack at the Hogwarts started, Dumbledore was in his office with Poppy. By the time he could see anything, the school was under siege. Hogwarts had many defenses as well as a few offences. Using everything he had, he fought valiantly. Soon he was joined by the potions master, Severus Snape.

But it was a loosing battle. Soon they were cornered. They would have died, had they not disappeared mysteriously.

The Weasleys were hit the worst. Arthur was caught and executed during the siege at ministry. His closeness to Dumbledore was all too well known. Charlie was exiled to Romania. He was declared persona non grata. If he ever entered the Great Britain again, he would be executed.

Bill had disappeared with the Gringotts. Percy & Ron had joined the Dark Lord. The twins disappeared after an explosion at the WWW, presumed dead. No body was found in the wreckage. Both Molly and Ginny were at home during all this. Molly died a few months later out of grief.

Ginny was forced into marriage with Draco by both Ron & Percy. It seemed he had lusted after her and Lucius would give anything to his son, especially if it's free.

Mad-Eye, practicing his constant vigilance disappeared and so did Nymphadora Tonks.

Hermione had been in America with her parents. They never returned.

(((o)))

Years passed, everybody living there lives. Percy was an ambassador now. Ron was wealthy after playing as a keeper for chuddley cannons and a few years after he quit, he bought them with a loan from Draco. He had fulfilled both of his life's dreams. Being wealthy and owning the chuddley cannons. He was married to none other than cho chang.

(((o)))

Muggles have a saying, "truth is stranger than fiction." Oddly enough, it applied to the magical world as well.

The thirteen chambers under the darkest place on earth were the sole remaining dwellings of the purest of beings, the high elves. When they had separated their plane from the Wizarding plane of existence, they took everything away, except their meditation chambers. Here, a high elf comes, when he had done something wrong. These highly magical chambers were the only thing that had remained behind.

When, an innocent and comatose Harry was put in, he began to absorb the light magic within him. It has been rumored that only someone pure of heart can even smell the high elves magic. Hence, no one that had ever come here could see or identify the strange magic.

But for the first time ever, the chamber accepted someone who was not their own. And instead of trying to scare them away as it did to all the other who had come here, it started to heal him. That chamber never opened again and after a few tries, everybody forgot about it.

(((o)))

What happened remains a mystery till now, but here is what is happening right now.

The room that Harry had been put in started to glow. It was a bluish light. Soon, the door was created in the walls of the room. Out stepped an immaculately dressed, powerful looking man of about twenty three.

He had a few rings on his fingers but had no wands or anything. Magic seemed to be whirling around him. The air was buzzing. The atmosphere was dinghy due to lack of proper ventilation. All the charms had worn of as the island had fallen into disuse.

The strange man looked around and a second later, the air cleared up. he closed his eyes and breathed the fresh air of England after so many years.

Then he opened them and one could look at the sparkling green eyes. They remind us of the hero who had been nearly forgotten. A scar was there as well. It would have given positive identification of the man. They would have known, **_Harry Potter had returned._**

_Author's Notes:_

This is my second work of fiction and is a sort of a cross between Harry Potter & my favorite novel, The Count of Monte Cristo. The first time I had read it, it was the smaller version for young children. I had been 13 at the time. Later, I bought the full unabridged version and read all 1200 pages in one go. My parents were pretty sore on me that day. So today, I am attempting to write this story as my personal tribute to one of the best pieces of fiction I have ever read.

Hope you like it.

**_gt_**

My other story, Harry Potter & the True Power will run together with this. Though the updates on this might be a bit slower.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Count of Azkaban**

**Chapter 2**

Lord Voldemort was the crowned ruler of the Wizarding world. His dominion not only included the British Isles but several smaller countries as well. His riches and his power gave him the luxury of doing as he pleased. But he was not happy. He was finding out that sometimes, it is better to want than to have.

If someone was to look at the dark lord now, he would be amazed. Gone was the tall and energetic wizard whose name was so feared that most wizards could not bear to take it. In its stead was a slightly overweight man who was used to the comforts of his life. The wars and battles for the king were now political in nature.

When he had been looking for world domination, he had felt alive. There had been plans to be made, things to be done and the excitement which made it all worthwhile. Now that he had everything, he wasn't too sure if he had wanted the right thing. His wish was a command. If he wanted something, it was done; if he wished for something, it was obtained lest he wanted it. There was no more planning, no more challenge. It was a boring life.

He needed challenges. Harry Potter had disappeared long time back. He had been a worthy opponent. Looking back, he missed those days. He had never felt that alive. Even Dumbledore had been worthwhile. Now all day, he looked after the boring nuts and bolts of running a country. Although, Lucius was taking care of the ministry, he was not completely trustworthy or rather, he never trusted anybody completely.

The desertion of the goblins had hit the economy hard. So much gold, which had been in the Wizarding economy, had vanished overnight. That had been a hard few years. It was only through the fear he had ingrained in the Wizarding world and later, some foreign capital, had the economy survived. Still, the five years in between were pure hell for the dark lord.

Sometimes he wished for his older life.

(((o)))

As Harry walked out of the prison, he could smell the sea. The salty water had a pungent smell of its own. But the atmosphere was quite better than what was inside.

He looked around the water all about the small island and smiled. It was a strange smile. It was not a smile of person who was glad to be home. Rather, it was smile of a person who seemed to be laughing at destiny and smiling, almost cynically.

He kept standing at the water front for a few minutes, as if expecting someone. He was right of course. A couple of minutes later, three people apparated with a very slight pop. They were similar in the sense that after disapparating in, none of them moved and dissimilar in the sense that they were as unique from each other as possible.

One was a white Caucasian male, around 5'11'. He was built strongly and had a clear air of competitiveness around him. His name was not known to many. Instead, he went around under the name of Blade.

The second person was one of African descent. He was as dark as Blade was white. He was a bit shorter bit a lot stouter. His arms were thick and one could easily see that he was quite powerful physically. He too, went under an assumed name and preferred a pseudonym, which was Nkola.

The last person was the strangest of all. He was rather unique. Standing less than 4'10', he had greenish skin and elvish ears. Had it not been for his height, people could have mistaken him for a house elf. As a rule, house elves were never taller than 3 feet and a few inches and obviously, they would never dream of wearing any armor, or having numerous weapons at their disposal around their belt. He was known as Stout. His race could not be identified.

(((o)))

It was either a mark of request towards the person standing ahead of them or extreme fear that no one made the slightest sound as to announce their presence. It almost felt like either Harry knew about their presence or they were ready to wait till he turned around at his leisure. Both were a mark of extreme respect.

Harry knew as soon as they had come in behind him. He knew they would be here. His Magical senses were attuned to what was happening around him. But at the moment, he was remembering all the ones he had loved and all those who had betrayed him. That had hurt him far more than what his enemies had had done. He had expected the behavior from his enemies but never from his best friend.

Controlling the emotions he was now under, he suppressed them. He squeezed his eyes, which were threatening to wet up. A few seconds later, he turned around and faced the three men. His eyes turned first to Nkola. Nkola, stepped up half a step and without any further delay, took out a scroll from under his cloak and handed it over to Harry.

He said, "As you requested, this parchment transfers to you this entire title of Azkaban. This island was sold to the French government some years ago as legitimization of the ransom the French paid for their independence. The French paid approximately 500 million galleons for this island which is not worth more than half a million. The strange thing is, only 400 million galleons were deposited in the kings coffers as per the deed attached."

"As we have bought the island for a lot more than its worth, the French ministry has made you a count under their laws. The minor change in their constitution was not a problem. As you requested, you may now be known by your title, the Count of Azkaban."

No emotion could be seen anywhere on Harry's face. It was just the fact that a plan well made was executed well enough, made him nod to Nkola. The simple nod must have meant a lot to Nkola because he smiled as if he was the new count rather than Harry.

Nkola stepped back as Harry turned to look at Blade. He had been charged with finding out the present status of several key persons in his life. He was far more apprehensive of finding out about this than mere money that had been expended.

(((o)))

Blade stepped up and took out what looked like a tablet PC from his pocket and expanded it. Harry could not help but smile. Both of them were pretty fond of muggle devices. But Blade's enthusiasm for them far surpassed his own.

A smile escaped his lips and all three of them were smiling as well. Harry laughed so little that every time he did, they were very happy for him.

Blade took the PC and opened a file. He started to read out.

**Tom Marvolo Riddle: The King of British Monarchy. **

Made a king after a special unanimous vote of all the Wizengamot on the 1st of August 1997. The plan for introduction of monarchy was presented by the then minister Cornelius Fudge. It was seconded by Lucius Malfoy and was accepted unanimously. All the families of the Wizengamot members had been under the wand of Voldemort may have something to do with it.

Presently, he lives in the new palace he created on the grounds of the previous ministry. The whole governing apparatus is controlled by the minister of magic, Lucius Malfoy, under his orders.

**Lucius Malfoy, the Minister of Magic.**

As he had dreamt, Lucius has been made the minister of magic. He is regretting a bit too late. No decisions of importance may be made by him. That should be read as no decisions are made by him. He is nothing more than a glorified administrator. His only success was getting the new bank opened under the control of his son. The entire bank is owned by three people. 51 percent by the king personally, 39 by Draco Malfoy and the balance 10 by Lucius Malfoy himself under the name of his wife, Narcissa Malfoy. The kings ownership of the bank is a fact known by the very few. In general, people believe that the Malfoy family owns all of it.

He lives in the Malfoy Manor, which has been entirely rebuilt as a castle of even more opulence than before.

**Draco Malfoy, Chairman, the Malfoy Bank.**

Draco Malfoy is presently one of the richest people of the British Wizarding World bar just one, the King himself. He is handling money and makes profit as if he was born to do this. However, how much of it is because of his foreknowledge of the administrational changes is not known.

What is a fact is that his fortune is growing like a field of mushrooms. He had started on an investment by his father and his trust fund. From a minor capital of 2 million galleons, he is a billionaire now. He is even more powerful than his father, the minister of magic is. His father looks after the domestic administration. In the present era of globalization, his money and influence were the real ambassadors of the dark lord.

He has a beautiful wife who was a graceful host and a cordon bleu chef. He has a ten year old son, who will join the Hogwarts next year. His reputation as a playboy is well known and deserved. His ever ready string of girlfriends and the power play he had grown adept into, had given him power that he had always wanted. He was happy with his life.

**Ronald Bilius Weasley, Owner, the Chuddley Canons.**

Ron is one of the very rich of the Wizarding society. He was known as the son of the pure blood and scion of the ever Gryffindor, the Weasleys. He is also well known as your best friend. He was one of the primary reasons that a civil war did not break out. He ratted the name of all the resistance members and none of them are to be found today.

He has sold his soul for the wealth and has never regretted it. As you are aware, most of his family is dead and the ones that are alive either, have no love for him or he doesn't have any love for them.

He is married to the Hogwarts graduate and your ex-girlfriend, Cho Chang. Their married life is known to be business like. Cho had grown up to be an even more beautiful person. They have just one daughter, Emily. They have been drifting apart for years.

First when he played as a keeper and then later when he managed the team. He was away nearly ten months of the year. He could have traveled to and fro from his job but he was rather partial to the groupies. He also had a friend in residence at one of his other homes. He was sure that Cho knew about it but the matter never came up. He was sure that she had some side arrangement as well. As long as he didn't have a visible adversary, he did not care.

**Percy Ignatius Weasley, Ambassador to the ****Jamaican****Islands**

Percy is a glorified administrator. He is an ambassador to the small island country of Jamaican islands. But all real negotiations were handled by Draco. He was just a pencil pusher. He had dreams of making it big. It never happened. Being a Weasley still had its disadvantages, it seems.

(((o)))

Blade faltered a bit and stopped. He knew the next item would hurt Harry the most. But the burning glaze that Harry had just put on him made him speak up, though with a bit of difficulty.

**Virginia Weasley-Malfoy.**

All the blood of Harry's face drained and it grew proverbially as white as sheet. He had feared the worst and expected to find Ginny dead. Ron had turned dark and he knew in his heart that Ginny could never turn evil. Taking control once again, he motioned Blade to continue.

"Virginia Malfoy," Harry did not miss the formalization of the name he had once loved so much. Seeing Harry was fine, Blade continued, "is from a long line of purebloods. Post taking control of the British Government, Draco Malfoy married Ginny Weasley in a private and exclusive affair. Not much is known about the ceremony or her reaction to her husband's indiscretions.

They have a son. As already mentioned, he is ten. His devotion to his mother is well known. She had named him after her father, Arthur. But the apparence of misogyny was seen here once more. The family had chosen to name him as Draco Lucius Malfoy, IInd. She had never liked the name and always called her son Arthur.

He is a precocious child, full of life and vigor. He is a splitting image of his mother. He has the same freckled face with bright red hair."

With this, Blade took out a file. It showed Ginny, looking a bit older and much more beautiful than he remembered. She was holding hand of a sunny child with flaming hair. They were walking in a garden. It was beautiful.

Harry lost control and a few tears went past his eyes. Nobody knew, but both of them had started dating at the end of fifth year. It was only because of Voldemort's keen interest in his affairs. He had never expected a single discretionary bone in Ron. He had been proven right. Ginny had fibbed about her dating Dean. She had gone out on a date with him once to keep up appearances. They had snogged each other senseless after that.

He remembered those days. They had been the best few days of his life.

(((o)))

Seeing that Harry was going off the deep end, Blade interfered. "There is no news of the whereabouts of several key persons which could have been the resistance leaders. Snape and Dumbledore disappeared during there battle at Hogwarts. Poppy was killed there. All the rest of Weasleys are scattered. The twins are dead after the explosion at their shop. Bill was never heard from after the disappearance of goblins and Charlie has been exiled.

Tonks and Mad-eye are also missing. Amelia Bones was killed because she dissented while everybody else wanted to give you the kiss. Mundungus had joined the dark lord. He was later driven to madness when he was found stealing silverware from the palace. Neville Longbottom has not been seen since the day his grandmother was killed. It happened the same day that all the other attacks happened.

Blade continued to give reports and Harry continued to hear them. For the last so many years, he had thought about this day, the days he would seek revenge. And fates, in all their goodness had equipped him well. They had given him every benefit to fight a good fight. They had just missed out on giving him the most important thing of all.

_Who was he fighting for?_

Author's Notes:

I am usually not so late in putting up an update. This time though, I was in a fix. I wrote the second chapter six times. I wasn't satisfied till now. I hope you all like it.

**_gt_**


	3. Chapter 3

**The Count of Azkaban**

**Chapter 3**

Harry was hurrying along the small path that had built itself during the last several centuries. He was uncaring to his path as well as his destination. The last several years were the gift to him given by fates. The people he had met, the friends he had made and the life he had led.

For a long time he had felt that as something that was due to him because of his earlier life. After hearing about Ginny, all he could do was curse all the gods for doing this to him. He had been ready for many things. He had been ready to face Ginny's death. He had been ready to hear of her incarceration. He had prepared himself for so many things that all his nights had passed. But he had never ever thought about her joining the side of his worst enemy. His heart cried but he resolved to move forward. There was justice to be dispensed and by the lord who had spared him his life and given him so much, he would be the hand of God.

(((o)))

A few hundred miles away, the object of Harry's disconcertations was in the huge lawn of the Malfoy Estate. Totally separate from the Malfoy manor, this was Draco's own house. It was an enormous estate, nearly a hundred acres. There were a few mountains and a couple of streams flowing through it.

The Ginny we knew was a young, vivacious and lively girl. She was loved and it showed in her eyes. They used to shine with life. This Ginny is not the Ginny we see any more.

Virginia, or Lady Virginia Malfoy, as she is now known is nearing thirty with a ten year old son. If someone could look at her without knowing, he would be hard pressed to tell her that she was a day over twenty three. She was known as a woman of grace, style and more than that, class.

She was a benefactor of the poor and did huge amount of work with other magical races as well as children. There were several shelter homes that were being run by her to safeguard the orphans of the war.

She was a model Lady, a model wife and a model mother. Nobody could say any different except if someone looked into her eyes closely. They had always been huge brown eyes, so full of warmth and love than one could drown in them. Her intelligence and wisdom showed in the depth of the expressions. Any person who was looking for some sympathy was sure to find his or her own share there. Her eyes had grown even deeper.

Sometimes, when she was alone, one could see a faint shadow passed over her face. It was not the face of happiness that everyone knew. Rather, it was a face of agony and pain. It was a face of despair. Those were the eyes of longing. If, at that moment, somebody could see her, anybody would surely know that she had been hurt in the worst way possible.

------

Ginny had it all, all the wealth, all the fame, all the money and all the pain. There was a single ray of light that was her son, Arthur or Artie as she called him. If one was to look at him, sometimes it was very difficult for them to see much of Draco in him. Yes, there were oohs and aahs. But one could discern them as an after thought. He was exactly like her.

At the moment, Arthur could be seen racing around the fields on a firebolt with Ginny behind him trying to stop and get something to eat.

"Artie!" Ginny shouted. She was on a better broom than Artie's. Still, he out paced her. They had been going around the circles for the last half hour as a house elf, with a plate of milk and biscuits popping all around hoping that the young master would either stop and eat, or the madam would just give up. Artie only ate after his mother had accepted defeat.

A few seconds later, totally tired, Ginny flew down to the ground and came to a stop by Blinky, the house elf. Taking out her wand, she conjured a few chairs, a table and small tent. As usual, Blinky popped out for a second and got her a tall glass of cool lemonade.

Accepting the glass and accepting defeat, Ginny sat down.

High above, Artie saw his mother getting into their usual defeat ritual, and sped towards her. A few seconds later, he drew up against her and stopped. It was worthy of a professional player. After all, Ginny had been offered a place in the England team just before her marriage to Draco. She had been that good.

------

A big smile appeared on his face as he walked inside the tent and picked up his glass. He hardly had any sweat, whereas his mother was soaked in it.

"Dear Mom. I think you should accept that you are getting too old to play." He bantered easily. "You know with the sweat you are making, we could keep all the cleaners in business for years. I think Dra…dad may even own a few." Ginny overlooked the deliberate slip of tongue and kept sipping her lemonade. There was no love lost between the father and son.

Draco was hardly at home and when he was, all he could do was try to belittle their son. He always harped about how little he knew and kept boasting of his achievements. A few years ago, both had stopped talking to one another. They tolerated each other and saw each other only five times a year. Twice during the semi annual ball, they had in their other residences, once at the king's annual ball and once again on Draco's birthday bash. The fifth time was a roving affair. It happened sometimes when both Ginny and Draco passed each other during their other activities. This was all when they lived under the same roof, albeit, in separate wings.

Ginny was looking at her son as she saw several emotions fly across. She was sure that none of them were very charitable. Despite all the crap dished out by Draco, she was amazed at how powerful the little tyke was. She still trained religiously for at least an hour a day. Four years ago, he had found her once. Since then every morning, both of them trained either together or, on the very few instants that they were apart, separately.

Coming out of her reverie, she just nodded absently. Paying no attention to the remark, she had just let go. Usually, that would have been at least worth a scolding. Worried as to the reason of such laxness, Artie moved around and faced his mother.

"Are you okay?" he said.

Straightening her head and looking straight into her son's eyes, she said, "Yes. I am okay." Artie could see a fleeting emotion pass his mother's face. He had seen it a few times when she seemed distant and sad. He had tried to find out the reason. His mother always told him it's nothing. 'He would get through to her one day', he promised himself and went back to more important things as demanding a chocolate chip cookie from Blinky.

(((o)))

Draco was sitting on the topmost floor of the new building of the Malfoy Bank. It was situated just adjacent to the old Gringotts. The place was like a black hole you could see through. If someone stepped in from the front, he reappeared from the back. Any magic passed through as well. Since the fateful day of the taking over of the Wizarding world by the dark lord, all Gringotts branches from all the places under the dark lord's control had vanished. Since then, the best of the best had tried to break through the charm but had failed. It had become a thorn in the side of the dark lord.

He looked down at the scroll which had just appeared in front of him. It was a magical scroll used by various banks as a secure means of opening and transferring monies. Using the muggle idea, a newly opened French bank, had introduced the idea some time back and it had caught on pretty quick. It was now the biggest bank in the continent. Now every bank balanced their accounts once a year. So the transfer of gold only happened once.

As he opened the scroll, he found a letter of credit opened by the La banque de l'Union européenne or simply known as La Beau, the beautiful one. Indeed, doing business with the most premier business was an honor. It was rumored that several economies, muggle as well as Wizarding, were directly or indirectly influenced by the bank. As it has come up soon after the vanishing of the Gringotts, there were rumors that it was a new improved version of the old bank. His Highness has been interested in finding more about it and now Draco would have a chance to do something about it.

The reason was the scroll in his hands. For the very first time, he had received such a request. This letter read as follows:

Sir Draco L. Malfoy

The Chairman,

The Malfoy Bank,

Diagon Alley

London.

Sir,

As per the inter banks laws and under the terms and conditions defined by them under the special economic treaty no 1665 sub section 3342 part f-9, we are hereby opening a letter of credit to the below mentioned account in favor of The Count of Azkaban.

The details of the letter of credit are as under:

Beneficiary The Count of Azkaban.

Mode of Payment Gold Galleons to paid on demand,

Line of credit Unlimited.

You shall be reimbursed whatever amount that you may forward at any time, without waiting to balance the accounts should you require additional funds to take care of our esteemed client.

Regards,

The Chairman,

La Banque de l'Union Européenne

Rue de Magie, Paree.

There were proper magical seals which he tested with his wand personally. He was wondering as to the importance and the status of the person who had forced the ever elusive chair-man of the La Beau to write a letter. Kings, Monarchs, Royalty and plebeians like the prime ministers or presidents of various countries were known to be waiting for an appointment with the chair-man.

If, somehow, this count may be used, it could be very beneficial for him. He smiled, happy at his plan, and called his valet, Scattermigger. As he entered and stood awaiting instructions, Draco said, without moving his head "Get me the file on the Count of Azkaban." He did not know every rich person of the world but he was sure that a dossier should be available.

Nodding his head, Scattermigger walked away.

(((o)))

Ron had just woken up in yet another unknown room. He had a big splitting headache. As he turned around, he saw a beautiful blonde sleeping on the covers next to him. As much as he tried to remember, he couldn't recall where they had met.

It had almost become a habit for him. Since the day he had made it as a keeper, he had entered the very exclusive club of heroes. The girls were aplenty and he already was famous or infamous being the friend of the boy-who-betrayed and being one of the wizards who had been awarded the Order of Slytherin, 2nd class just after the new regime had taken over.

He took out a hangover potion from his pouch and drank the dose. He suddenly felt the usual wave of coolness pass through him and felt his mind clear. He started to remember the bar he had met the girl. It was just another day in the life of Sir Ronald Weasley.

(((o)))

Ever since the grim determination had caught hold of him, Harry had become a red hot locomotive on fire. For the last several hours, he saw as the island of Azkaban changed its shape. There were more than two hundred house elves and seven Wizard construction companies who were changing the things as per plan that had been given across to them. Usually, such a task would take them at least three weeks. But with the aid of numerous house elves as well as multiplying the number of people involves, the task was being shrunk to be completed in less than eighteen hours.

Even now, barely six hours from the time the whole team had started its work, no-one could recognize the place as it was. It had been a cold, dinghy and dilapidating monument which had been deteriorating as it lost most of its magic. The island had been long but unwelcome. It had not been a happy place.

Now, just some hours later, a shape had started to come through. Through use of various enchantments and transfiguration, the new building was starting to come through.

It was tall and had an air of superiority. It was a bit more than a castle. One might say that it was almost a palace. The walls were being built using snow white virgin white marble. A slab alone of such marble was an expense enough. To have such a palace being built with such a fine stone was almost unheard of. But the stone had been stored inside a magical room and it was giving off as much as was required.

Soon, the entire periphery was completed. Another team was making the palace inside. As per plans, there were going to be 148 rooms, 28 living rooms and several ball rooms, a separate hospital wing and a truly magnificent library. There was even a ball room made wholly of glass and crystal. That room was a splendor beyond all splendors.

Outside the main office, a huge lake was being built as well as the biggest Quidditch pitch. There were stables for horses as well as beautiful landscaping all across.

Harry himself was looking after the very heart of the castle. Under the entire splendor, he was making his very own apartment.

Even though he could afford the best, his tastes had remained very simple. He was building his own apartment around the room from which he had appeared. Against all the opulence being built into the castle of the count of Azkaban, his room was simple and comfortable. It was a room of a man who was very confident of himself.

It was probably going to be the most beautiful as well as the most intimidating castle and it was going to be the most important apartment. For here, in a time not that far away, the future of the Wizarding world would be decided.

_Author's Notes:_

Your response to the fiction had been amazing. I just hope that I can do justice to your expectations without dishonoring the legend that is the count of monte cristo.

**_gt_**


	4. Chapter 4

**The Count of Azkaban**

**Chapter 4**

Next morning, as the sun rose, a new sight awaited the people of the British isle. In the center of what used to be one of the most dreaded island, the home to dementors and the castle that used to be the prison of Azkaban, now stood the most magnificent castle ever built. It was made of pure white marble and the sun rise reflected off the stones. It almost felt like a new sun had descended the earth.

It had a grand entrance with a thirty foot tall gate. There were two angels engraved on the pillars which almost looked like divine guardians. There was a plain light blue energy which was encompassing the entire entrance. No-one had ever seen such a powerful shield. Although one could see through it into the magnificent interiors, it left no doubt as to the security the shield provided to the solitary visible entrance.

-------

As one looked through it, the castle looked the most beautiful. There was a long pathway made of marble, mirrors and an elongated body of water, rectangular in shape, forming the boundaries of the pathway. There was no marble or stone etc which seemed to have been used to separate the body of water from the pathway. It just stayed separate, almost like magic. The water was crystal clear, and it looked as if millions of diamonds were scattered at the bottom. It was sparkling that much.

This lane was in the middle of a huge circular garden which was landscaped to perfection. On both the sides, almost identically on each side, there were small gardens where beautiful flowers graced there presence. Several trees, which should have been at least five hundred years old, could also be seen. Several trees were so rare that they were thought to extinct and several were of unknown variety to the population in general. There were several small mazes as well as a few gazebos scattered across. In between all this, there were several plains adorned by natural grass. The fresh morning dew emitted such a sweet scent that it felt heavenly.

After approximately five hundred meters of straight pathway, there were nearly a hundred steps which rose to the main entrance of the castle.

Alternately, a circular path could be seen going around the spectacular landscaping. There were innumerous statues placed on both the sides of the road which looked as if greeting the visitor. The path was big enough for a chaise to pass and led to the entrance of the castle. The entrance itself was huge and dominating. There were too doors which looked very thick and old. There was a huge brass knocker on it. There were several hand sculpted images on the door which, if looked from afar, were like exactly like the shape of a hippogriff.

-------

Inside the main door, was a huge hall which was also the most beautiful hall one might have seen? There were several columns and the space seemed to flow. There were several hallways all around the hall. In the middle of the hall was a beautiful fountain where water was sprouting off a phoenix's beak and falling back into the pond. Strangely enough, the fountain's perimeter was designed as if a basilik had circled around it and was giving it protection. It was a most breathtaking sight full of contradictions. It would fill natural awe in the minds of the beholder towards the owner of such a beautiful piece of sculpture. All the magnificent pieces looked almost life like. They were so realistic that if seen in the shadows of the night, one might perceive them to be real.

But let us pass all these glorious designing which was this castle and proceed through a small hallway. It was made in such a way that, if they didn't know it was there anyone would surely miss it. The pathway was filled with paintings of several historical heroes. As they were moving, we can be sure that they were in fact magical.

After a long walk, the pathway turned and proceeded into the entrance of the back gardens. It is not the gardens we are interested in at the moment but the turn itself. So artistically done is the whole designing that we over look a grand painting of the most powerful mage of all times, Merlin. If we look closely enough, we would see that the portrait is not like others which were just hopping around and enjoying the companies of each other. As a matter of fact, he looked quite serious and had an aura of power and responsibility flowing off him in waves. This was in fact, the entrance to the private chambers of Harry Potter, the Count of Azkaban.

(((o)))

Draco entered his office and found Scattermigger waiting for him. There was a small file in his hands which had the emblem of the Malfoy Bank on it. Draco crossed over to his chair and sat in it. Scattermigger came forward and put the file in front of him. Silently, he opened the magical file and read through the information as it appeared in front of him.

"John Edward Smith, or the Count of Azkaban as he has bought the county of the French estate of Azkaban, is acknowledged as one of the richest men of the world.

Financial Details: He appeared on the business screen of the Europe approximately ten years ago and started a small company which specialized in innovation. Over the period of next three years, several important break-throughs were seen as important products were launched in the market.

The entire business was run under the aegis of smith enterprises. Now, nearly thirteen years later, the reclusive owner of the company is acknowledged as the richest man in the world. However, the fact is not known outside the very exclusive circle of the elite. There are no verified estimates as his wealth. By the time an estimate is prepared, the net worth is changed astronomically. Also, as the entire business is held privately and exclusively, there are no financial statements available as to the exact net worth of separate components. There is rumored to be zero liability in all the businesses. Several small countries are surviving just because of the business of the smith enterprises.

His net worth is rumored to be in excess of 1 trillion galleons."

Draco's mouth was agape and he was flushed to the roots. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined the chance the fates had given him. If he could somehow get close to the count, he could make it to the biggies where he was still considered as nothing but a young upstart. Scattermigger carefully noted the reactions projecting on Draco's face as Draco seemed to be in deep thought.

Bending his head once again, Draco looked at the report. On one side of it, he saw a face of powerful looking man. He looked down the file as the personal details of the count started to appear on the parchment. He read.

"Name John Edward Smith aka the Count of Azkaban.

"Nationality Birth of unknown origin. Presently a French subject.

"Age around twenty five. Exact details are not known.

"Height 6'2". Photograph attached.

"Family Unknown.

"Residence No fixed residence though rumored to have several houses all over the world

"Wealth Accurate estimates not available.

The report gave some further facts and/or fiction about the exclusive billionaire. A small bit of information caught his eye and he read through it once again.

"The count of Azkaban has bought the island of Azkaban from the French government for an undisclosed amount. It is rumored that this reclusive billionaire might send a few months of his time in the British Isles. Looking into the opulence of his houses he hasn't even visited, it is sure that the count would need to renovate his new house which would sure amaze the English wizards. Geographically, the island is in the British Isles but is a French dominion due to…." Draco didn't read further as he was already aware of the ransom deal. He had brokered it himself. At that time, the money had been like an intake of vital potion to the dying economy. He remembered the other details and smiled.

Taking a sudden decision, he decided to try and meet the elusive count today. Summoning Scattermigger, he dictated a formal letter asking for an appointment and owled it. Now, with a nervousness he was not used to feeling anymore, he waited eagerly for the reply and dismissed Scattermigger.

He never knew that two owls were dispatched instead of one and the destination of the second owl was nit exactly what he would see as official.

(((o)))

Once again, Ginny had woken up after her nightmare. As usual, she saw that Harry was being tortured in some hellhole crying out for help. But nobody seemed to help him. There were many people their. Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, Mad-eye, Lupin etal, but nobody seemed to as much as lift a finger to help him.

She saw herself as trying her best to claw her hands through the wall, but she wasn't able to do anything. There was blood all over her hands with a few nails missing as well. Most of the nights, she had this nightmare, she woke up completely tired. She had this nightmare pretty often. Earlier, just after Harry's trial, she had slept a wink for several weeks. Later, after giving birth to Artie, she had gotten over the nightmare a bit. But in the last few months, the nightmare was getting bad once again. As a matter of fact, she had not slept for more than a few hours for several weeks.

As she saw the woman looking back at her in the mirror, she looked quite haggard. She wasn't aware why, but her body seemed to survive such fierce torture but her face was starting show the signs of fatigue. She had not used any glamour spell ever and she was not going to start now. She was a survivor and she was going to be a winner. She had a fierce determination to eat into the very foundations of those who had imprisoned her Harry so many years ago. She might not have been able to save him, but she was determined to make the best of what she had. She might have started the war alone, but she was sure that she would do her part.

She had started to initiate her plan a long time ago. All her charity work and donations were made out of Draco's money. To Draco, these expenses were insignificant. But to many people all around, they were the life blood and salve they all needed. Hidden behind her charity work, she was also a part of secret society which was trying to fight back the new laws. Since the takeover of the Wizarding world by the dark lord, many Wizarding families were unable to contact their muggleborn friends. So many divorces had been forced between mixed marriages. So many unilateral actions had been enforced. So many lives had been shattered that and out of a few million of population, a few hundred populations had gotten together and started a resistance.

When she had found about them, she had joined them and started all the fronts of her charity work. These places not only helped the needy, but also provided cover for some questionable activities of the society. Several pieces of intelligence had come in. It included the fact that Snape had been killed; Not by death eaters, but by professor Dumbledore himself. The location of Dumbledore was still unknown but the rumor was that he was dead. He had died of torture several years ago. Neville had never been seen since the day of attack on her aunt and Mad-Eye and Tonks were not seen also. She had never even seen the bodies of her brothers Fred and George, or Gred and Forge. She smiled a bit as a few happy memories flew out of her past. There were so few now that she cherished them now.

And she hated Percy and Ron, her so called brothers. Those two might have been her blood, but where the heart was concerned, they were two of her enemies. Their betrayal seemed so much more because of them being her brothers. Percy had been blinded with ambition and Ron with jealousy. But the reasons only infuriated her more. Both of them had tried to approach her several times, but she had shirked them off. Despite their success, they knew that being Draco Malfoy's brother in law, was a distinction in its own. She was sure that they had used her name, but there was little she could do about it openly.

Coming out of her muses, she started to think about the information she had been given yesterday. Several members had come about rumors of several skirmishes which had taken place in the past few weeks. Every time, they had hit some vital government installations. They had all decided to find out more about this group and see if both of them could work together. They seemed to have a similar goal but different assets. Her network had intelligence and not the muscle to do mucg about anything. The other group seemed to have the muscle. Maybe both of them could join.

Still thinking about this, she started to get ready for her daily training sessions. As she approached the training center, and opened the door, she didn't see Artie. Usually, he would be there first. She decided to wait for a few seconds for him. When he did not arrive for a few minutes, she knew who would know?

"Blinky!" she said slowly. As if waiting her summons, Blinky appeared in front of her and waited for further instructions. She knew that the young mistress sometimes did not feel well in the morning. She also knew that today was one of those mornings.

"Where is Artie?" Ginny asked of Blinky. Despite all the feigned annoyance that Blinky showed towards Artie, she was sure that she liked him. sometimes, she almost felt as if Blinky had adopted Artie. If someone knew where her son was, it would be Blinky.

"The young master woke quite early today and is riding the broom." The Artie-expert informed her.

-------

Ginny walked to the window from where she could see the pitch. She saw him flying beautifully albeit doing very dangerous maneuvers on the broom. She decided to join her son and let go of the training for the day. An instant later, she apparated on the Quidditch pitch.

Artie was in the middle of a very dangerous Wornsky Feint when he heard a pop nearby. Slightly disoriented, he turned his head instinctively towards the source of the sound. In his pleasure at seeing his mother join him, he forgot about the ground which was just about sixty feet under him, and he started to wave at his mother.

He was startled to see his mother waving like mad and he turned his head again to see what was wrong.

He saw the ground no more than fifteen feet under him and he was flying at high speed.

-------

As Ginny disapparated to the pitch, she saw Artie in middle of the feint. It was so much like Harry's. Suddenly, Artie turned in middle of the faint towards her and started to wave at her. She was horrified and started to wave at her son to see ahead at the ground while at the same time tried to take out her wand and stop the descent. But, in her heart, she knew it was too late as she saw her son coming down at full speed, not more than fifteen feet from the ground. She was terrified and unable to move a muscle.

(((o)))

Inside the castle of Azkaban, we see inside the room guarded by Merlin and find an apartment totally different from the rest of the castle. It was a huge apartment and was built like a muggle pent house. In here, the utilities were more of steel, glass and graphite. Instead of the virgin white marble, the apartment was made of black granite. It gleamed.

As we enter, we see the huge hall filled of several comfort chairs surrounding a huge fire place. The sofas were of black leather and several muggle appliances like a plasma TV, DVD player, stereo system and a laptop computer were sitting at proper places all around. There were a few photos of Harry with people we know as Blade, Nkola and Stout.

There was a hallway which led to many places including one from where the sounds of ragged breathing were coming. As is obvious, it was where Harry was sleeping after the long day yesterday.

------

Harry had had a gruesome day yesterday. He was so close to coming to the final stages of his revenge that his nervous energy was driving him. It was only a few hours ago that he had come in to rest a bit. However, because of his fatigue, he fell asleep without erecting his special shields that protected him from his own nightmares and once more, he saw the same nightmare that had plagued him for so often and still did every now and then.

He was in a cell crying for help and Ginny was on the outside trying to come in. she was crying and ragged as hell. Her fingers were all bloodied due to trying to break down the wall. He could see several shadows around Ginny, but they never came into focus. It was as if all his being was entrenched in with Ginny. But both of them could do nothing and were in the same hell forever.

An instant later, he woke up, breathing heavily and totally drenched in sweat.

-------

Waking up, he sat in lotus position and tried to meditate and find his center. He went in deep and slowly his breathing returned to normal. His mind started to get in tune with his soul and fell into deep meditation. Falling into trance, he saw a red haired child who looked very familiar riding his broom. He seemed to be enjoying it tremendously. Harry smiled as he saw the look of exhilaration on his face. In his trance, he could almost feel the feelings of bliss the young boy was feeling.

An instant later, he saw the boy turn and wave at someone. Had he looked more closely, he surely would have recognized the young woman as Ginny. But he was more worried about the child. He could feel in his guts that something was wrong. Without even thinking about it, he apparated through all the shields and charms, and reappeared in a Quidditch field. He didn't see anybody but the face of the child who was looking in horror at the ground and was not more than a split second away from him.

An instant later, there was a huge crack.

_Author's Notes:_

So how did you like this? Let me know.

I am deviating from the original novel in the interests of the merging worlds as well as to account for the presence of magic.

Shadowed Rains: its 2010, so Harry is nearly 29.

**_gt_**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The palace of Lord Voldemort, which was once the ministry building, was full of hustle and bustle. Minor functionaries to big nabobs were hurrying from one room to other shuffling parchments and handling scrolls. One might think it to be almost strange that while on the pursuit of this kingdom, the reigning king was feared and his home had been a veritable fortress. Now, it was reduced to a high secured zone where all sorts of wizard kind came in pursuit of their business.

Inside his personal wing, the king had not even slept last night. In a far away country of Mongolia, the minister of magic had been assassinated and the deputy minister had taken over. It was rumored that some kind of upstart, very powerful dark wizard, was in pursuit of the throne of Mongolia. Voldemort gave a vague smile. It was a strange smile with a bit of vanity intermixed with a bit of irony.

He had sort of become and icon of the dark wizards. Although he hated being compared to any mere mortal, he prided himself on his achievements. He could also not overlook the irony of the situation. Here he was, signing a diplomatic letter, condemning the act which he himself had used to take over his own country.

Finishing his morning diplomatic function, he was after all running for the Le SIG, he looked back at the strange feeling he had had in the night. In the very late night, he had felt a kind of magic hit him slightly. It seemed very familiar. But before he could think much about it, his secretary came in and reminded him of his appointment for his speech at the congregation of a few world leaders. Putting aside the odd feeling, the dark lord moved forward to his attempt at diplomatic rule of the world.

(((o)))

Ginny had fainted.

She was a mother and seeing the one thing which had made her life livable, close to death had breached all her mental defenses, and as soon as she heard the huge crack of thunder, her faint heart gave away. Presently, she felt a soft cool hand putting a dash of water on her face to rouse her. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Artie smiling back at her with a concerned look.

Her motherly instincts took over and less than an instant later, Artie found himself in a bone crushing hug. He didn't know it, but there not very dissimilar to the hugs, for which his grandmother Molly had been famous.

Some time later, as Ginny stopped her tears, she looked at Artie and asked, "What happened?"

(((o)))

_Three minutes ago._

As soon as Harry appeared in the garden, his senses picked up the young child throttling down at break neck speed. Fact be told, this was not a time for thought and there was none. Almost of its own accord, Harry's raw magic leapt from his very being with a huge crack. Had he had even a little bit of time, the sound would have been nearly silent. However, he was not consciously controlling his magic. But the results were just the same.

In a split second, a cuboid shaped mass of energy appeared directly beneath the point of impact and Artie went right into it.

The huge mass of energy was like a magical gel. It acted as a break and absorbed all the speed and energy. A few seconds later, Artie was completely immersed in it, his arm askew. Clearly, his bone had been broken. Harry realized that the boy was safe and withdrew his magic and now Artie was lying down on the ground, apparently fainted.

-------

Harry strode forward towards the small boy. As he looked closer, he looked about ten or eleven with flaming red hair. Even more so, his face reminded him a lot of Ginny. Bushing aside the thought, he leaned over the fainted child and took out his wand, muttering a few spells. Artie was enveloped in a soft blue halo and just over his arm, where it was broken; a small patch of red could be seen. Guiding his magic to the red patch, Harry slowly initiated a mending process. In less time than believable, the arm was as good as new.

Getting up, he decided to look about and see where he actually was. It all had happened so fast that he didn't even know where he was.

So Harry got up and looked about and the first face he saw shook him to the core. It was Ginny.

-------

A few meters away, Blinky was looking amazingly at the young man in front of her. When she had seen the young master hurling to death, she had nearly apparated mid-air to save him but was hurled back by some very powerful magic. As she stumbled back, she saw everything that had happened from far away.

Harry was torn. He felt the love which had long been suppressed in him for the red haired girl clashing with the facts of her being married to Draco and being the mother of his child. Feeling anguish, he did the only thing possible and apparated away to his new house.

-------

As soon as Blinky saw the unknown but powerful wizard apparate, she popped next to the young master and enervated him.

Artie slowly opened his eyes and saw the worried looking Blinky standing over him.

"What happened?" Artie asked of Blinky. The last thing he remembered was a sharp pain in his arm and hitting something. He looked over at his arm and saw that it felt good, a bit too good. Fact be told, his body was feeling a lot better than it did just a few moments earlier. Without waiting to hear the reply, he ran towards his mother who was still lying down the ground.

Still unable to use magic, he did what he had seen several times in muggle movies. He took a napkin from the tray which was on the table just besides a glass of lemonade and a glass of water. He wetted the napkin with the water and slowly put the napkin on his mother's face.

(((o)))

Harry had just reappeared in his new house. As he disapparated, he saw all three of his friends waiting for him. There were several parchments which needed to be signed and several decisions that he had to make. However, at the moment, he was quite shaken. He had not expected to meet Ginny, at least not right now. But his luck always held true. If something could go wrong, it did go wrong. In the meanwhile, there were several other reports that were coming in. he had not been satisfied with the information which had been acquired and had asked for more. In that respect, he was quite like Voldemort. His wish was an unspoken command and several wizards were already on the job.

He looked up at his friends and this time, it was stout who came forward. He had a scroll in his hands and a grin on his face. Seeing the smile on stouts face, Harry smiled as well. It could mean only one thing. Phase 1 of his plan had started. He took the scroll and opened it. It read,

"To From

The Count of Azkaban, the Island of Azkaban. The office of Lord Draco Malfoy, Chairman, the Malfoy Bank.

Sir,

We are in receipt of a letter of credit in your favor from Le Beau. You are requested to visit the bank at your earliest convenience."

The letter was a simple business memo and it was as expected.

Setting aside the previous event, he sat back and began to go over his plans mentally. He needed to arrive properly and it required a few leaks. He set about making them.

(((o)))

Ginny was glad beyond her life at seeing Artie alive and well. Tears couldn't stop flowing from her eyes as she hugged her son with all her might. It is a natural instinct of all mothers, especially after a near calamity. Slowly, coming to her senses and getting over the relief, she asked Artie, "What happened?"

"I don't know mom." Artie replied, just as oblivious. "I was waving to you and saw you pointing at the ground. When I saw the ground, I knew I would break a few bones this time. After that, I seemed to hit some gooey thing and felt a sharp pain in my arm. The next thing I remember is being woken up by Blinky. The odd thing is that I did not have any pain in my arm. Rather, I feel fresher and more energetic than ever."

Ginny was perplexed. How was her son saved? She was sure that she had fainted. Maybe it was accidental magic. After all, Artie was a very powerful wizard. Suddenly she remembered Blinky. She looked around and saw her hiding behind a tree, almost fearful. Although Ginny had never ever punished any house elf, Draco was not all that humane with them.

"Blinky. Please come here." She said very softly. She did not want to scare Blinky any more than she already was.

Blinky popped just behind her an instant later. She looked fearful of punishment. She feared because she wasn't able to save the young master and another wizard had to do it.

Hearing Blinky pop up behind her, Ginny turned, bowed down and looked directly into the eyes of the scared elf. She said, "There is no need to be scared Blinky. I just need some information from you. Can you tell us what happened?"

Relieved that no one was angry with her, Blinky started to give all the information she had, "I is waiting behind you when I see young master fly broom. Then, you mistress faint and young master about to hit ground. Blinky try to get young master but pushed back. Another wizard, strong wizard, come in and save young master. Young master broke arm. Stranger wizard use heal magic and set arm right. He looked Blinky and then whoosh away"

Ginny could understand everything but was even more flabbergasted. The entire estate was under several charms and wards. Apparation was not possible. Only she or Draco could do it. How could some one just come in and get out without tinkering with the alarms. It was not that she was ungrateful to the unknown wizard for saving Artie, but it was still a mystery as how he had entered the estate. She looked at Blinky and asked, "Did you see him? Did you see the wizard who saved Artie?"

Blinky nodded and a scroll appeared in her hands. She handed it to Ginny. Ginny opened and saw a sketch of a tall, young and powerful looking man. Had she been totally honest with herself, she would have also accepted that he was a very handsome man, though a bit young for her. He was no more than twenty two-twenty three and she was a bit older. Setting aside the feeling of gratitude towards the unknown wizard, she strangely noticed that she felt that she could trust this man. She had had such feelings before and she had learnt to trust them. She decided to find more about the young wizard. She also decided to keep the incident to herself for the moment. This again was as is some strange power was guiding her thoughts. She turned to Blinky and said, "Don't mention this incident to anybody." Blinky nodded and popped out.

Ginny was lost in her thoughts as she thought about the strange incident.

(((o)))

Ron was in his office at the moment and he was pulling his hairs. His team, the Chuddley Canons had been on a loosing streak for straight three years. A new team had come in and was beating the hell out of everybody. They had taken his best members and also of many other teams. Since then, he had been on a loosing streak. Slowly, many of his sponsors had ebbed off. But still, he had felt that it was a temporary phase. He took loan from Draco and kept on keeping up the appearances. After all, it was show biz and appearances were all.

It didn't help that Cho herself was no miser. Though, even he had to accept that she was independently rich and her long term affair with Theodore Nott was an open secret. Neither his liaisons with many socialites and/or groupies were unknown nor was the money he spent on them. But now, looking at his previous year's accounts, he was surely in a mess. He had to meet Draco ASAP.

(((o)))

It had been more than four hours since the letter had been sent to the count and Draco was fidgeting. He was not used to it. Despite all the political ramifications of his meeting with the count, Draco was very disturbed by the wording of the letter. 'An unlimited letter of credit.' This was totally unheard of. Though his bank dealt in billions of galleons a year, he had never heard of such a thing. He was going to use the count and impose upon him the superiority of the Malfoy clan. Once the count was suitably impressed, his project would become quite easy. He again went deep into thoughts making several scenarios regarding his meeting with the count.

Draco waited and waited. He waited till the end of the day but no response or even acceptance of his communiqué reached him. All his plans were shriveling up. He decided to go to the count's place himself tomorrow. He called Scattermigger for the umpteenth time today and asked for the counts place of residence and floo address. He was amazed at both. The residence was simply stated as 'Azkaban Castle, Azkaban' and the floo address was simply, 'Azkaban'. At approximately midnight, Draco left his office, all his daily correspondence still where it was since the moment he had touched the letter of credit.

(((o)))

The Azkaban castle was truly a marvelous view in the moonlight. It looked even more beautiful than it did at dawn. The milky white light reflected off the marbles and shone like heaven. There were no similes to even explain the bliss it exuded. In the middle of this all, Harry was smiling at the report he had gotten from his people. He was smiling as he saw that Ron was in financial straights and Draco's plans to meet him. He gave several other instructions to blade regarding his business and went to his personal home.

As he lay down to sleep, he couldn't. The image of Ginny's son as well as Ginny herself did not escape his mind. She still looked so beautiful. It took his breadth away. He still loved her. Though his last many years had left him unable to get in touch with them, he had always loved her. And despite learning of the things Ginny had done, somewhere in his heart, he wanted to forgive her or to find reason for her actions. He also wanted to meet up with Hermione. He would really love to meet his remaining best friend.

As he tried to sleep, he thought again of the circumstances that had brought him here.

_Author's Notes:_

Riyushi Nigami: I have made the appropriate changes. Thanx.

To everybody else, thanks a lot for reviewing. I hope you liked this chapter as well.

**_gt_******


	6. Chapter 6

**Count of Azkaban**

**Chapter 6**

Harry closed his eyes and his mind went back to the single event that had changed his life.

(((o)))

_Thirteen years ago, after being imprisoned in the prison of Azkaban, and the strange light enveloping Harry._

Harry came to his senses. At least what he thought were his senses. In the beginning he felt disoriented. He did not know where he was and it felt different. More than that, he felt very different. Slowly, the thoughts started to enter him and painted some pictures. It was almost as if it was somebody else's life. He remembered himself at the department of mysteries, the veil and Sirius. He remembered the headmaster showing him the prophecy and his reaction.

He looked and himself and could clearly see that he had been grieving. He had lost the one person who had loved him unconditionally, the one last person who could be called his real family, his Godfather. He saw that the grief over the death of his dead godfather had left him detached from the world. Sometimes, almost clinically, he had felt that he had grown weaker and thinner. There didn't seem to be any energy in him and he felt as if the weight of the world had been thrust on him.

Now, however, as he felt himself, he felt light as air and strong. Somehow, he knew he could take over whatever the world threw at him. The knowledge was more instinctive than objective. He had faith in himself. All this happened while his eyes were closed and hardly a second had gone past the moment he had come out of his coma.

He slowly opened his eyes and found himself looking at an enormous tree over him. It must have been at least a hundred feet tall. He was lying under it on some soft grass. Suddenly he heard a rustle and found himself turning sharply towards the sound. He was astonished that he had gotten up and turned without seeming to move. He was astonished to see what he saw and with all the things that he had seen, it was saying something.

Just opposite to him, there sat three people, wearing light purple robes and looking very imperial. He was sure this must be a dream. Because if it wasn't, they sure looked like the caricatures of the high elves he had seen in the wizarding mythology book he had once read.

His eyes grew big and he was too astonished to speak a syllable. That was until he heard on of them speak.

"So this may be the lost descendant?"

Something inside him snapped and he knew no more.

(((o)))

Stout entered Harry's room in his personal apartment. He had a unique bond with Harry. And he could feel the stress and grief coming out of him in waves. Like all the good friends, he had an instinctive knowledge of what to do. He placed a relaxing charm on Harry and walked away. Things had been waiting for him for several years and a night more won't do much harm.

The thought today wasn't of much importance, but one day, he would pay dearly for fighting this war so carelessly.

(((o)))

Ginny herself had turned in. Artie had been put to bed and he was now sleeping like an angel. Like all the kids, despite his more than average power and intellect, he was not much different from other kids. After having nearly escaped death, a kiss and a hug later, everything was normal in his world. She was almost jealous of this feeling of invulnerability that most kids have.

She herself had been very apprehensive about the entire ordeal today. It had not been an easy thing. There were several factors to her uneasiness. She had been uneasy about realizing the flimsiness of the thread of life. Although she had lost nearly everybody, Artie was her one safe haven; her one place where she felt shielded from the bitterness of the world at large. But today, she had been very close to loosing him.

Even though she was afraid to think about it, she realized it herself that had it not been for the miracle, she would have certainly lost her son today.

The second thing she was uneasy about was the security of the estate. She had always remained very positive about the safety of her residence. The world outside today was not a good place and Draco had his enemies like any other rich man. His closeness to the king, and being the head for wizard financial world, further highlighted the issue. Hence they had the best charms and wards placed around here.

As a matter of fact, they had been promised several experts that even the king would need some time to break through the wards. But today, a stranger had broken through at his whim and passed the wards as if they did not exist. Despite being thankful for the same, she could not be, but apprehensive, of the lack of proficiency of the wards.

But the things that were not letting her sleep were not the two very important things mentioned above. It was the picture that Blinky had handed her. Try as she might, she just could not shake the image out of her mind. She had an odd feeling that she knew him and more than that, trust him.

In the present world, it was a very dangerous thing to trust somebody; more so with her life, and even more with the life of her son. She was not sure where the feeling came from but she was sure that it was there. She never knew when she lost herself to sleep.

(((o)))

A few hours later, or what could have been a few hours but might as well have been a few seconds for all he knew, Harry woke up and found himself in the same place as before. Just this time, he was not sure if he was hallucinating or not. But something in him made him turn again towards the odd looking people he had seen before.

It was now that he recalled the elongated faces with sharp nose that all of these people had. And he recalled the last thing he had heard, 'descendant'

"Ah. You are awake now?" he heard a voice which was strangely musical. At the same time it had much power and authority underlying the jovial tone. He had never heard someone speak in such a manner before. The voice was a strange balance of power and humility with a dash of humor thrown in. He again looked blankly at the people in front of him.

"Yes. It would seem so." He said almost automatically while trying to come to his senses. Frankly, he was still unprepared. But then, the Gryffindor courage had stepped in, and he now found himself with his foot in his mouth. He turned towards the person he saw had moved his mouth and hence, would have spoken the words he had just said. Still, admonishing himself for his lack of courtesy and had a feeling that a few good manners would not go unnoticed. He added, "I am sorry if my earlier words were a bit rude. But I am at a loss here."

By now, what he would later find out was his slytherin side, came out. He let the open ended sentence just hang there.

If there was something he was good at, it was fighting and surviving on pure guts and luck. He had his instincts working on almost overtime now and he was not going to the messages they were sending him.

The man who had spoken initially nodded and came a bit closer to Harry and said, "Good. I can feel you coming to term with your situation. Let's take a walk."

Knowing he had no other option, Harry followed.

A few minutes later, it was the other man who broke the silence first.

"Hello Harry! My name is Cilera and I am what you might have heard of as a high elf."

Despite his doubts and apprehensions of the same fact, Harry could not help but be surprised at this.

(((o)))

Draco returned to his manor and was very nervous. He had not received the intimation of any response from the count and the uncertainties were making him nervous. This was a very important deal with him and only if he could deal with it properly, he may just enter the rarified field of a few really powerful wizards of the world. As a matter of fact, he would become politically even more powerful than the king. Though lord Voldemort may be the political king, he would become the king of the financial wizarding world.

It was this nervousness combined with apprehensions and musing that Draco overlooked to see the status scroll which appeared magically everyday upon his arrival. It mentioned all the activities of the house. It was a secret no-one knew about but afforded him the luxury of keeping up with movements of his household and more specifically, his spouse, Ginny. He had long been suspicious of her activities with the resistance, but didn't want to know of them. He kept his eyes close for plausible deniability.

He had been the one who had lusted after her due to her beauty and nature. But most of all what attracted him towards her was the unattainability. He could have had anybody but her and that was because he had to have her. He had bought the silence of her estranged family (Ron & Percy) with a few galleons and a political posting, defying all of his family. He could not just tarnish her image now without damaging his.

Anyway, he would look back at the fates play much later on, because the one day that there was an anomaly, he did not look at the scroll and simply banished it without further thought. After all, nothing had happened in the last several years.

(((o)))

Harry stopped walking and stood as if rooted to the ground. Cilera looked at him and smiled.

"Come now! I knew it wasn't that much of a surprise. I knew you at least suspected it"

Harry could do nothing but nod.

"Come with me and let me tell you a story." Cilera nodded towards a path which had appeared in front of them and both of them started to walk through it.

"I can make out several questions which are emanating from your mind. Let me tell you what I know." Cilera said and then started a story which would change the world.

"As I just told you, we all are the members of a race which you know of as the high elves. Nearly two millennia ago, we parted ways with the wizard race. They were too destructive and arrogant. Slowly, as time passed, our magics started to clash. All of us, the elves, have a natural affinity to magic and we ask it to aid us in leading a better life. The wizards, however, were humans who somehow gained access to this energy and like everything else, they started to abuse it. For several millennia, we co-existed but at the time of parting, the wizarding kind started to abuse the magic by using it for evil intentions and purposes. Our magic reacted badly to it we were left with very few options.

I can feel you asking yourself as to the relevance of this information for you, but I assure you it is very important." Harry, who had undoubtedly been thinking the same, was amazed at the remark. As he looked back at the one sided information, he saw several instances when the same had been done. He was sure that he was right. The elves were surely either natural leglimens or telepathic.

As if hearing his thoughts again, Cilera said, "Yes Harry. All the elves are naturally telepathic. We are not able to be leglimens for our magic refuses the corruption of the source. Anyway, where were we? Ah yes, as I was saying, we had very few options. The most powerful and wise elves met, and pondered upon the issue. They agreed unanimously that we had only one option available to us, he had to separate our world from the wizards."

Harry stayed right where he was. He was shocked into it. Over the period of last several minutes, his world had been totally shaken. First, he appeared at a place he does not know yet feel peaceful in. this was in spite of the fact that the last thing he remembered about himself was that he had been drowning in grief cursing his headmaster Dumbledore.

Over that, when he did wake up, he saw himself in front of people he had read about as myths and no more. More than that, they just happened to be telepathic and now, the worst of all was that this single elf had somehow taken the task of telling him the history of wizard-elf relations when all he wanted was to return. And now that he was working up the courage to ask him the same, he was coolly informed that most probably, both the worlds had parted.

The shock had been too great and all he could think of was that he royally screwed.

(((o)))

Cilera, on the other hand, knew exactly was going through the young man's mind. It was very important to make this young man understand the new life which had been thrust upon him once more. He had seen through few of the memories of the young Harry and had read a lot about him through their sources in the human world. Looking at the young man, he recalled what had happened to him in the past few hours.

As Cilera had just told Harry, the elf world had separated from the wizarding world nearly two millennia ago. Since then, there had been near peace in the world. However, one of the things about separating the worlds was that they still required someplace to anchor the new world from. It had to be very powerful place to be able to withstand such a huge amount of magical displacement. So they had chosen the most powerful place they knew, their meditation chambers. The same meditation chambers which were at the bottom of the magical prison of Azkaban.

Elves were the beings of light with hardly any crime from them. It did not mean that there were no accidents, but what it did mean was that there were never any evil intentions in them. However, when one did make a mistake, instead of a prison, they were sent to the meditation chambers. These were very special and ancient chambers which were rumored to be the very source of power of elves. What they did was show the images to the person staying in them which signified the reason he was here, rather what it showed them the events which were out of order with the natural flow of magic or good. So anybody inside saw what he had done and would be shown the same again and again until they accepted the wrong they had done and accepted it.

It was a place of coming in balance with oneself. It was a place of harmony. It was a place of coming to acceptance. It was a place of coming into balance with all the magic.

_Author's Notes:_

This chapter is just the first part of the chain of events which show us how Harry turned into the Count of Azkaban. Hope you like it.

Thanks for appreciating the story and letting me know: and your reviews as well.

**_gt_**


	7. Chapter 7

The Count of Azkaban

Chapter 7

_Harry's dream_

Harry was still looking at Cilera. He seemed to be thinking something. Not being a natural telepath, or a legilimens, he was unable to know of the workings of this man. He looked around and saw that he was amongst trees which looked very old. He could even feel a bit connected to them. Shaking it off as a result of his latest calamity, he turned his head back to the elf and was surprised to see the eyes looking squarely at him. He suddenly felt as if his very soul was being read, once again.

-------

Cilera on the other hand had been thinking a lot and got lost in his recollections. Having lived for nearly 3000 years did result in too much memory. He now turned at the young wizard in front of him and thought of explaining a few more things to him. As he turned again, he saw Harry. He was looking around. Cilera could see the natural magic of the trees enveloping and interacting with the young one. He dared to hope now.

Then suddenly, Harry turned and looked straight into his eyes.

-------

"Come Harry. I know you must be interested in knowing several other things. But I think I should continue and tell you the complete story." With that, Cilera waved his hands a bit and two chairs appeared out of nowhere and he motioned Harry to sit down opposite him.

"As I was just saying, the conflict in our magics reached to a level that we had to set up a separate plane and had to anchor it. We chose the anchor to be the thirteen magical chambers of meditation. They are not only the anchor but also a gateway to our world. However, these chambers normally respond to elven magic only. Whenever a wizard is forced into these chambers, they go mad. The magical clash is too great. However, somehow, your magic responded and interacted with the magic of the chambers and you were transported to our part of the world."

Harry had somehow been expecting something like this. He had been uprooted and moved. Things had happened of which he had no idea. Not knowing how or why, he felt as if something momentous is going to happen with his life.

Cilera on the other hand continued with his story.

"When we felt the magical wave pass through, we could all feel the huge magical displacement happening. And when we came to the entrance of the chamber, we found you there, hovering and enveloped in a mist of magical energy. Then, we brought you here. This is the mystical forest of healing. We have been waiting for nearly a week for you to awake. Now that you are, we have a meeting with the council." With that, Cilera got up and waited for Harry to follow him. He had wanted to recheck all their hopes and it was time to submit his findings to the elder's council.

Harry, on the other hand just kept sitting for a while. The questions in his mind were making him very nervous. And the most important thing was that he still had no answers. These people had just told him that he had somehow been transported through some gateway but how he ended up there or what could account for his physical as well as his mental changes, was still a mystery.

But unable to do much, he decided to do the one thing he could. He followed Cilera to wherever the meeting was going to take palace.

About fifteen minutes later, both of them returned to the place they had started from. Instead of the two elves they had left behind, under a tree, there were now nearly twelve elves which were floating over the round, in lotus position. A sense of calm seemed to pervade through all of them.

As soon as they arrived, Cilera waved again and a seat appeared in front of the congregation. He himself moved over and joined the others. To Harry's utter astonishment, he sat in the middle of everybody and floated a few centimeters above the rest. He was obviously their leader.

(((o)))

_Present time_

Ginny had been asleep for sometime, lost in the dreamless sleep owing to the extreme mental and emotional fatigue. A few hours into it, as her mind started to achieve the normal position of unrest, she started to go through the usual nightmares she had. She dreamt of her mother's death. She had died broken. The once generous woman was no more. She was barely a skeleton.

The amazing peaceful aura that had always enveloped her had long been lost. She had not eaten for a while. The healers had refused to treat her under the threat of the new monarch. All her brothers were gone except for Percy and Ron. She wished that they had died as well. That would be lot better than the betrayal they had given to the family. At least her father had died fighting. She was proud of him. Proud of him for standing up to his ideals and for fighting for what he believed in. and she had been angry.

She had been angry at her father to leave them stranded. But now, as she saw her mother dying, she vowed that she would get even. Come hell or high water, these people would pay.

A devious plan started to form I her mind.

Suddenly the scene changed and she saw Harry. He was smiling and both of them were walking hand in hand on the lake shore. The moon had been beautiful and the moon light was bouncing off the lake water. From afar, both of them could hear sweet songs of the merpeople. It had been enchanting. As she turned towards Harry, to kiss him, her eyes jerked open. She was astounded as well as scared. For the person she had turned around to kiss was not the Harry potter she knew, but a man. He looked young and was quite handsome. He looked quite familiar but could not place the familiarity. More than that, she had not looked at him long enough to see his features.

Ginny could not sleep a wink for the rest of the night.

(((o)))

_Harry's dream_

All thirteen of them were looking at the young Harry. He had become quite nervous by that time. Lost in dimensions, he was at a loss at what to do. But somehow, he felt something tell him that all would be alright. Taking hope from his inner voice, he looked up straight into the eyes of every one, with all the pride he felt in himself and waited for them to start.

Meanwhile, twelve of the thirteen were a little less excited than the thirteen one. But now was the moment of the truth. They looked at each other and then at Harry. All of them nodded together as if coming to a joint decision and Cilera spoke up once again.

"Harry. I know that you have been wondering what is happening? To tell you the truth, we have been doing the same. It has never happened that a wizard may be acceptable to the elven magic. But we have a theory. More like, we have a hope. If you would just grant us a request, we can really find out what is really happening here?"

Harry was pretty surprised at the request. He had assumed that the elves would at least answer his questions as to his presence here. But to know that even they were unsure about everything, a strange feeling began to fill his stomach. It was more of a fear for out of the blue, he was getting surer that something strange is happening once again. Realizing that answers are needed by all of them, Harry nodded.

"Can you tell us something about your family and the circumstances that led you to us?" Harry now knew that he was in a long haul. Though his life may have been short, it was certainly eventful. He nodded and started to tell of his history bit by bit. Soon however, he was skipping important parts and had to go back. And in no time at all, his story was all jumbled up. The council too was confused.

"Harry! This is not helping. Would you mind if we could use a bit of telepathy and see all this in an organized manner?" Harry was flushing to his roots. He was completely embarrassed. Here he was, the sole wizard in presence of the high elves and all he could do was make a mockery of his ability to think properly although, a few moments earlier, in the forest, he had been thinking in a more organized form than ever before. This strange dichotomy befuddled him even more. After thinking for a few seconds, he nodded. He knew he was taking a big risk, trusting the elves with all his secrets as well as the prophecy, but he could think of nothing else to do. More than that, something inside him told him that they were trustworthy. In the end, he acceded and nodded once more, giving his acceptance.

Cilera smiled a small smile and came up to Harry, followed by the rest of the council. Cilera placed a hand on his head and closed his eyes, as did all the others.

-------

Harry felt a strange calmness envelop him and he too became one of the observers of his own life. The first sight he saw was him floating in a sort of fluid. It was garish. He could feel loved and protected, probably for the first time in his life, he felt peace. He was in his mother's womb. The scenes seemed to flyby. He was born and he looked at the happy faces of both his parents. Both of them looked not much older than him. His mother was beautiful. Then he saw him being loved and treated like a prince; His mother's walks across a strangely familiar meadow, with him in his arm. There were a few glimpses of Albus, Sirius, Remus and a couple he could only assume were Neville's parents. The time passed by and the happy looks in his mother's eyes became haunted. Her face went gaunt and she seldom smiled. He heard a major argument between his parents which he could only assume to be over the choice of the secret keeper.

Visions flashed by as he saw Voldemort enter his nursery, just behind his mother and his mother's attempt to save him. He was astounded to find that she died a few feet away from him. Then he saw Voldemort approach him and curse him with the killing curse. Everything just blanked out for a few seconds. Then he saw Hagrid picking him up. The next ten years were something that he was not proud to see. He saw the abuse, the neglect and the pain. He could feel the outrage and sorrow felt by the high elves.

Then the story became quiet detailed as he entered the Hogwarts. The first year with Quarrel and the mirror of erised; second year with the image of Voldemort and Ginny; third year brought the adventures with his godfather and his reaction to the dementors; the fourth year with the tournament and the rebirth of Voldemort; finally the last year was filled with dejection and pain he felt; The final betrayal by the headmaster after learning the prophecy and his turning into a catatonic state and then into magical coma.

As the whole story passed him by, he saw several things which he had overlooked as well as several things which he could now correlate. But what followed was an absolute shocker to him. He saw himself lying down in his room as he saw the face of silver haired Draco enter his room. He looked positively gleeful. He saw as Draco pick up his wand. He was shocked to find his wand react badly to Draco's touch. But Draco picked it up anyway.

He heard an alohomora followed by three avada kedavras. A few instants later, he saw the aurors come in. He was taken away on a stretcher. What followed was a farce of a trial. Dumbledore didn't deign to help him. He only felt grief in the eyes of one couple, Mr. & Mrs. Weasley. The rest were unresponsive. Remus wasn't there and Sirius had died. A few flashes later, he saw himself enter the Azkaban prison where he was sent to bottom rooms that were a state secret known to very few.

The last turn of events he saw were his placement in the chambers and a strange white light enveloping him.

With that, he opened his eyes and saw everybody looking up to him, an odd light shining in their eyes.

(((o)))

_Present time_

Hogwarts was one place which was lost in the shrouds of magic even the dark lord could not fathom. Built by four of the greatest wizards ever, it was ingrained with magic so strong and ambient that it had disappeared after the takeover bid by the dark lord. It was just like the Gringotts, albeit the scale was like comparing a mountain to a grain.

Voldemort had tried hard to capture the last bastion of light but had conceded defeat after numerous efforts. Of this much he was sure, if he couldn't find it, no one else could either. He did understand that his own prized ancestor, Sir Salazar Slytherin, was the maker of most of the defensive as well as offensive wards at Hogwarts. Accepting defeat from his icon, even though being separated by a millennia, he conceded.

Hogwarts was lost to the world.

However, for the last two days, a strange hum of magic could be heard around what used to be Hogwarts. Through some unknown turn of events, the magic in Hogwarts was changing a bit. Inside a huge room in the castle, which no one even knew of, several stones started to shine and magic started to hum. In the middle of it all, the Gryffindor's sword began to glow and magic once again started to coarse through the ancient walls of the school.

(((o)))

_Harry's dream _

Cilera's eyes were shining with happiness as he approached Harry. Harry was strangely curious of this change in emotions he could feel amongst all the high elves. He saw as the elf he had come to know approach him. Harry could almost make out some wetness which had appeared in the eyes of the leader of all the elves.

Strangely, still rooted to the ground, he could see Cilera as he rushed and stood just opposite to him. Harry was sure now that tears had formed around his eyes. Suddenly, strange arms enveloped him and the last thing a bewildered Harry heard was, "my son!"

_Author's Notes:_

Another chapter for all of you. And for me. Hope you enjoy it.

Let me know how you like it. Or if you don't.

**_gt_**


	8. Chapter 8

**The Count of Azkaban**

**Chapter 8**

Harry was now totally bewildered. Thoughts were passing through his mind so fast that he could not even think properly. "'Son?' what the hell did he mean by that?" He disengaged himself from Cilera's hug and looked at him.

He was already taken aback by what he had seen in the magical recollection and reliving of his life. The missing link to the events of his life, were now clear as a day to him. Now he knew that due to his grief, he had a sort of magical breakdown and somehow, Voldemort had learnt of this. He had sent Draco, probably as an initiation or maybe with some help. Draco had taken his wand and killed the Dursleys with it. He had been sentenced without any defense. More so, no-one had tried to help him except for Madame Bones. He was sure that Dumbledore could have helped had he wished or tried. But it didn't seem so. The only two sympathetic eyes he could see were from Mr. & Mrs. Weasley. From there on, he had been sent to the place which was known to have driven all the wizards mad. It was only due to some quirk of fate that he had survived."

Thinking along the same lines, he suddenly came to a halt as another thought superseded all other. 'Cilera had called him son? Does that mean… no it is impossible! His parents were James & Lily Potter.'

Harry was thinking once more and Cilera could not help but smile at the young man in front of him. Despite all what the life had thrown at him, he had still retained the purity of heart that was a must for this to happen. He took Harry's hand and said, "Let's go to some place more comfortable." With that both of them disappeared from the forest.

(((o)))

Harry felt nothing. It was as if he had just stepped up and appeared in a new place. There was no sound whatever. He remembered the loud pops of the Weasley twins to Dumbledore's very slight pop. He doubted even they could have made such a silent transit.

Now he looked up and saw himself in a milk white castle. It looked- well the only word which could describe it was- pure. There was a small pond a few meters in front of him. He could see many beautiful flowers around one of the most beautiful gardens he had ever seen. He could almost feel Cilera standing beside him. Harry could feel Cilera looking at him. He turned around and looked at the elf. The first words out of him were "What do you mean by son?"

(((o)))

Cilera was looking at Harry with a sort of longing. It was as if he had found someone he had lost sometime ago. And it wasn't far from the truth. He knew that an explanation was in order. He waved him hand once more and a couple of sofas appeared with a table laid with refreshments.

"Why don't we sit as I give you some detailed history lesson? You remember I said we had hopes. They was been realized and as you are the hope, it is only fair that I tell you about it. Why don't you have some thing to drink while I tell you about it? I know you are hungry but I also feel that you would rather hear the story first."

Both of them sat down and Harry started to sip a blue drink. It tasted good. He was reeling under all the information that had been given to him. Still, he knew almost nothing about his circumstances here. It was a different world and he had no more friends, rather no-one he knew. He doubted he had many or any friends left. Though he had survived loneliness before, he hadn't known friendship then. But now, in this strange world, he was ill at ease.

He took a bite off a pinkish fruit and waited for the story to start.

Cilera closed his eyes and leaned back on his chair.

"Our story starts nearly two thousand years ago when the council decided to separate our plane from the wizarding world. At that time, the council was led by my father. After deciding that we would anchor our plane from the meditation chambers, the council spent several days in preparing for the ritual. However, there was one drawback to the plan developed by the council. Someone, a very powerful elf would have to stay back to ground the wards and the wards would take so much of his energy that he would become nothing more than the wizard equivalent of a squib. My father, the most powerful elf and the leader of our kind at that time assumed the responsibility. He stayed back and as all his magical energy was consumed, he could not use the portal."

Saying this, Cilera stopped a bit. His sadness at loosing his father was still apparent and Harry could feel it. Both of them bathed in the silence after the information had been given and received.

Harry's thought were in a state of disarray. Yet, he was sure that somehow, someway, both of them would turn out to be related. His fate had always played his cards close, but by now, a pattern had appeared. In his life, if something could go wrong, it will go wrong. He silently waited, expecting Cilera to come out and tell him how he was the heir due to the illustrious and old family and blood line of his father. Somehow, it had gotten pretty boring. Many a times, he had had heard of the illustrious Potter family. However, as he was the last living one, he didn't know much about the supposed greatness. As it is, in his life, greatness was so common. Great things happened to his quite commonly.

Little did he know how wrong he was?

"Harry! What do you know of your mother's family background?" Cilera asked.

Harry's mouth hung open like a goldfish. But as the answer was pretty short, he didn't have to think about it. He said, "I don't know much. I only know that my mother was named lily Evans nee' potter and had at least one sister, petunia Evans nee' Dursley. I am not aware much about anybody else."

Cilera nodded, as if expecting the answer.

"Harry! My father's name was Rassit of the elven, like mine is Cilera of the elven. The family of the elven are the leaders of the race. Before he gave up his magic to save his world, he decided that should he continue as a normal human, he would name himself as Robert Evans."

Harry sat down, speechless. He could see the connection very easily; as easily as it was being implied. A beautiful light of hope came into his eyes. He looked up and saw that Cilera had now stood up and was standing in front of him, tears falling from his eyes. Harry stood up with a jerk and embraced Cilera. He had a family; maybe three thousand years older, but a family none the less and at that moment, Harry was the happier than he had ever been.

(((o)))

In this world, he met Cilera's wife, his many times grandmother, Sana. He also met their children and grandchildren, all of them, many centuries older than him. Cilera and Sana adopted him in a magical ceremony. He was happy and had a huge family with him being the kid. He was spoiled and he was loved.

Due to his unique ancestry, he was taught many things. Or more like, he had to learn many things to live with his family. After his fusion with the elf magic, he had undergone many changes. His magic had grown up a lot and had become powerful and different. As Cilera once told him that it was a strange fusion of elven magic who guided the magic and the wizarding magic, which molded the magic. He now had his own brand of magic. As it was different, it was immune to both elven as well as wizarding magic. Another change in him was his new thirst for knowledge. After the change, he could learn a lot quicker and understand it even better. It was as if all his abilities had become more focused and had become finer. But the best thing was that he was happy.

Twelve years passed very quickly. Harry had only felt betrayal from the wizarding world and was in no mood to ever go back. He was happy and that was all he ever wanted. Now, if one could see him, they would not recognize him. He was nearly six feet, had the same black hair but they had been grown and now hung in a pony tail. His frame had grown muscular and the shoulders had broadened. But the most significant change one could see in him was his eyes. They were truly happy now.

(((o)))

We join Harry one day, nearly a year ago as he is in his usual meditative trance. He is sitting on smooth green grass with the bliss of morning due all over the garden. The sun had just begun to rise and we can see golden rays reflecting off the lake nearby. Even in the stance of rest and inwardness, there is no doubt that the person sitting is powerful. Any elf worth his salt could tell you the strong aura surrounding this person. But there are more telltale and objective signs of the power almost leaking off this young man.

The grass is greener and the fragrances from the flowers seem to be gravitating towards this young man. A small flit of air seemed to be just revolving around him. He seemed unaware of the tall man, he had come to regard as his father come behind him and stop. Cilera was waiting for Harry to get up.

(((o)))

Cilera regarded Harry as he remembered and compare his son now to what had appeared nearly a dozen years ago. He did not see the physical change or the greatness of power enveloped in his son. What he, as a father, saw was a happy and content young man. A child by elvish standards but sometimes was older than many of them. His joy was to see him happy and content and it broke his heart that he must interrupt the sedentary life his son was leading now.

As if sensing, which he probably did, Cilera, Harry receded from his trance and smiled at Cilera.

"Hey Cil!" he said happily, using the term of endearment which he himself had christened a few years ago. Then his smile receded. Because the normally happy father looked a lot worried. His state immediately shook Harry to the core. Countless thoughts crossed his mind. Although the present realm he was living in was not violent, accidents were known to happen. He was completely sure after looking at the pain in Cilera's eyes that someone he lived was in pain. As he loved everybody that Cilera loved, he naturally grew worried.

"What's wrong?" the question was short, simple and direct. But the tone in which it was said betrayed otherwise. It was filled with concern. Cil nodded and said, 'Come with me. We have a few things to discuss.' With that, Cilera turned and started to walk towards the castle at a brisk pace. Harry was following him, an agitating breeze behind him at all the times. He was worried about his adopted mother, his cousins, Myrna and Halli as well as his nephew and niece, the twin bundles of troubles, Feanor and Eamane.

As he reached the center of the study, he was amazed to find several other council members in attendance. In his many years since his return, he had grown close to many of them and knew all of them. Being the spoilt son of their leader did have its perks. But he had never seen them this worried. They all sat down at the conference table. His father was at the head of the table while he sat just opposite to him, at the other end of the table. He could feel the worry radiating from all of them.

He had had to learn much over the years and though he had learnt a bit of patience, he was from being the coolest one.

In the meantime, Cilera had sat down and looked at Harry once more. "Harry. We have a problem and you are the only one who can help us." It was a statement, the answer to which was never in doubt. Harry loved his family and would die in instant, better; he would go to hell and back to live for them. His eyes said it all.

His father nodded and continued, "For the past one year or so, our anchor to the physical world is getting weaker. There is so much darkness around in the wizarding world that it's starting to erode our anchor. We have to restore balance or in a few years, the anchor will snap and we all will be stuck in a limbo. None of us are able to go there. But you can. Only you."

The words were said and the meaning was clear. So was the decision made by Harry. He stood up, signifying his readiness to go then and there. He said, "I will leave in a few minutes as soon as you give me details of what is happening in the god forsaken world."

"No. there is no such hurry. We must make plans and decide. Wait for me in my study in an hour. We will discuss the matter then before taking any step." Cilera said. It was a notice of dismissal from the meeting. The older Harry would have paced around, worrying and waiting. The new Harry was far more deliberate. He went to the library and decided to read up all the information on the anchor and separation of the worlds.

An hour or so later, he was interrupted by Cilera. Both of them sat down.

"Harry. We are sorry to send you back to the place…" before he could continue, Harry stopped him.

"You all are the family I never had. You have loved me and allowed me to love you all. I am doing it for my family and not for anyone else. Just let me know what is to be done and exactly how to do it?" Harry said. His tone was quiet. It was a powerful and confident tone but you could almost see the sincerity underlying the statement.

There was a silent look shared between the both of them and they understood each other perfectly.

"Harry, Voldemort has undergone many rituals which are of very dark in nature and are conflicting directly with our anchor. We don't know what or how, but the link is eroding. You will have to go and find out. This is something we have felt happening for sometime. As a matter of fact, an year or so after you arrived; the wizarding world went out of balance. We have certain assets in place which will give you nearly unlimited wealth and power it affords you. And a few people you can trust."

And over the next few hours, Harry had learnt a lot about the corporate structure he was supposed to inherit. The elves had always had some involvement with the wizarding as well as muggle economies. They had always been untraced. Ten years ago, they had started to consolidate them, ever since they had seen the erosion. Goblins and House elves were cousins of the high elves and had been working on their behalf.

Nearly one year ago, he had come back to the wizarding realm and met his new confidantes. He had always put off knowing the fate of people he knew. That part of his life still held much pain for him. To avoid all that, he immersed himself in taking control of the empire at his disposal and several key steps took place. It had been an arduous work to plan everything and get all the pieces in their place. And now was the time to make all the effort worthwhile and save his family. Now was the time to exorcise his nightmares.

Still thinking about all that had to be done; Harry's mind was now immersed in his future plans.

A few hours later, daybreak came. With it began the chain of events which would change the entire wizarding world.

_Author's notes:_

I am sorry for the delayed update, but I have been away for some days.

I have left a few key events out. They need to be told at a proper time.

Hope you like it.

**_gt_**


	9. Chapter 9

**The Count of Azkaban**

**Chapter 9**

The new daybreak would be forgotten by all. It was like any other. But to the keepers of magic, it was the day that light started to fight back against the dark.

Although forgotten, several chains of incidents started today.

(((o)))

Harry had gotten up early, as was his custom now and was deep in meditation. He needed to be calm and collected, most of all to block the link he had with the dark lord. Though it had weakened quite a bit and was almost non-existent while he was in the elven realm, it had gained a bit of strength since his return to the wizarding world. Now, he needed to stop the link through several meditation techniques which were unique to him. Had it been for any other wizard or elf, they would not have been able to do so, but he was cursed with abnormality all his life.

Today was the day when he would start the first phase and meet Malfoy. Blade had already informed him that the young lord was in the habit of reaching his office by eight in the morning. Harry would wait until eleven. The magical owl who bore Malfoys letter was already roaming in the vast estate. Harry had had a chat with him and the owl had agreed to wait until being dismissed of his duty to take back a reply.

He looked at the scroll which the owl had delivered from the Malfoy bank and re-read the letter.

From:

Lord Draconius Malfoy,

Order of Voldemort, 2nd Class., Order of Merlin, 1st Class, Chairman, the Malfoy Bank, and Member of the Wizengamot.

To:

The Count of Azkaban,

Isle of Azkaban.

Sir,

We are in receipt of a letter of credit in your favor issued by the La Banque de l'Union Européenne, from the Paris, France branch.

Kindly set up a schedule for an appointment to complete formalities.

Harry was smirking at the letter. The memo was normal and professional although he had already gotten the information that Draco had waited for him to come till late last night. As a matter of fact, he had left instructions to be informed as soon as the owl returned. 'Let's get on with it', he thought. He took out a galleon and put his thumb against it. A few seconds later, blade appeared in his room.

"We need to go to the Malfoy Bank." Harry told blade and the latter nodded. With a swish of blade's wand and a thought of Harry's, they both changed into formal robes. Then blade disapparated to the bank.

(((o)))

The Malfoy bank was a flurry of activity in the morning. As usual, there were people at the tellers doing their jobs and vaults were being visited by many. A few desks away, some one was applying for a loan or an advance. Amidst all this activity, blade entered the bank, a parchment in his hands. He walked to young girl who was sitting at the reception counter. Her name tag announced her as 'Grace'

"Miss Grace!" blade called out authoritatively.

The young girl looked up and saw a clearly handsome man. Her lips got a bit wider than the usual and she smiled. Clearly, she was interested.

"How may I help you, Sir?" she asked politely as per the banking guidelines, though her smile was a lot warmer.

"I am here to meet with Mr. Malfoy." Blade said.

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No. But we were asked to contact them" with this, he took out the letter from Malfoy and handed it over to the girl. As she read through the letter, grace almost screeched. The rumor mill had been working overtime since yesterday regarding some client which had been keeping the plat-prat, as he was called behind his back, quite uptight. This must be him.

"Are you the Count of…" she stopped as she saw blade shook his head.

"No. I am his personal secretary." With that, her head bobbed up and down. After asking him to take a seat on a sofa, she quickly spoke to Scattermigger and a few seconds later, left her place and walked to the chairman's offices.

Draco Malfoy had come up early once more. He was a bundle of nervous energy at the moment. Just then, Scattermigger entered his office.

"Sir, a man claiming to be the Count of Azkaban's personal secretary has come to the bank with your letter. He is asking to meet you. I have called him up here."

(((o)))

Draco was not happy with the present situation. He had wanted to meet the count himself and get to know him on a personal level. He had no intention of dealing with the man's secretary. But he couldn't be turned away as well. Making up his mind, he looked at Scattermigger and said, "Bring him in but make sure that we do not do any business without the count being present here." Scattermigger nodded and went back to fetch the Count's messenger. Draco, on the other hand, started to check up on his appearance to make sure that everything was fine.

A few minutes later Blade, accompanied by Scattermigger, entered Draco's office.

(((o)))

Blade entered the office and looked around. He had seen better and was hardly impressed. Scattermigger took the scroll and handed it over to Draco. Both of them were silent, willing the other to start. A few seconds later, it was Draco who broke the silence.

"Ah! Mr.?" Draco started in a condescending tone. He wanted to have an upper hand while talking to this man. Any separate understanding may be useful.

"You may call me blade. I am here at your request and I don't have time to waste." Blade said brusquely, totally obliterating Draco's approach.

Astonished by the response he got, Draco decided to change his track. He was not the chairman of such a big bank for nothing. "Be as it may, the letter of credit is in favor of the count. Hence his presence is essential to the setting up of the transaction."

"The count doesn't delve in matters of such mundane importance." Blade said. He was surprised how accurately the count had predicted the meeting. Then, he shouldn't have been. He had just lost a thousand galleons to stout.

"It is our policy Mr. Blade. We take the security of our client very seriously." Draco ended the conversation.

Blade took out a small thing out of his pocket which looked very much like a muggle cell phone. A few seconds later, he was speaking with the count.

"Count!" he said. "The director of the bank insists on meeting you"

"I will be there in a few minutes. Ask them if they are free." Blade looked at Draco who nodded his head once.

"We are waiting." Blade said and switched off the mobile.

All three of them waited in silence. Draco had already left message at the entrance to avoid any delays.

(((o)))

There had been no practice in the morning today for Ginny. Since last night, she had had an odd feeling. So, she had called up Blinky and asked for the full information on the earlier incident. However, as there were no pictures that may be shown, she was at a loss.

Now, as she sat in her chambers, Blinky appeared in front of her.

"Madam wants know" she said simply. Ginny was astonished. Blinky never volunteered anything. But deciding quickly, she nodded her acceptance.

Blinky squeezed her big eyes close and put her hand out, her palm facing upwards. A ray of light burst from her palm and she could see Artie flying at the break-neck speed on his broom. In real-time, she saw the scene unfold from Blinky's point of view. She gasped once more as Artie plunged in to the near death dive. But this time, she knew the outcome. She was more interested in the man who had saved him. And then she saw him.

He was a tall man, maybe 6'2"-6'3", with long black hair tied back in a pony tail. He had high forehead and sparkling blue eyes. He looked oddly familiar. Then she saw him somehow saving her son. How he had done it was not known because he had had no wand and had not moved his lips to say out an incantation. All she could see were the effects. Her son was alive and the benefactor was gone.

She stayed like that for a long time. Her heart was saying something her mind refused to accept. But she was a Weasley, not a Malfoy. Heart always won. Only one word, with a couple of tears escaped her. "Harry."

(((o)))

The Harry Potter, alias The Count of Azkaban had just apparated into the lobby of the Malfoy Bank. Had he wanted, he could have passed through the wards and appeared directly into Draco's office but his abilities were better served unknown.

As soon as he appeared, a young woman approached him.

"The Count of Azkaban?" she asked deferentially.

He nodded.

"The chairman is waiting for you. If you could please follow me." With that, she turned and led the way to the office of Draco Malfoy. Another one of the attendants discretely signaled the office as to the arrival of the count.

A couple of minutes walk later, Harry reached the office. The door was opened by Scattermigger, Draco's secretary.

(((o)))

Harry walked in, imperiously, as if he owned the place. He glanced once at blade and then looked straight at Draco Malfoy. He had changed a lot. Gone was the brat who had nothing better to do than invoke his father's name and his position. He had turned out to be a self assured, confident and vain man. The vanity had stayed.

Draco felt uncomfortable under the piercing gaze of the count. He never got uncomfortable, except perhaps when he was with the dark lord. That in itself was very uncomfortable to him.

He decided to turn on his charm a bit. He stood up, smiled and walked out of his desk and put out his hand to greet the count.

The count, it seemed, was in no mood to be expansive. Draco's hand remained in air for a couple of seconds. The count made no movement to meet it. Flushed to his roots, Draco put his hand down. He had never been so embarrassed, at least in a long-long while.

The count spoke, "Why have you requested my presence for such a mundane matter as executing a letter of credit? It had all the magical seals as well as copy of my magical seal."

Draco was once again pushed back a step. He knew he was wrong. In the magical banking world, there had been no real need for the count to come. Although it was customary, it was not a necessity. Draco had asked the count so that he may come to know him, but the ploy was reaping more thorn than roses at the moment.

But he had a way out, a small thing which could explain his actions.

"I apologize for any discomfort which may have been caused by this; however there was something on which I had to ask you regarding the letter of credit opened in your favor."

Draco paused, clearly waiting for any reaction from the count. He obviously got none.

Getting up a bit ruffled, he took out a copy of the letter of credit he had received and gave it to the count to peruse. The count however did not even glance at it but continued looking at the now squirming Draco. His gaze said all. He wanted an excuse for this impudence.

"As you see, the letter here is quite vague."

"How is it vague, sir? I have been under the impression that all the formalities which are to be completed and technicalities to be fulfilled have already been agreed to under the treaty number 1665. Are you telling me that the Le Beau is not conforming to the treaty?" The portent of the sentence was clear to all present. Le Beau was the biggest international bank and the chairman of the international council of the banks. It was a very serious charge. Malfoy bank could very easily be out of favor for even uttering such words.

Draco made a hasty retreat in his words and said, "No. I didn't mean that. If you see the letter of credit, it is quite vague as to extent of its disposition."

"And what would that mean? How is it vague? I ask of you once more. Or have they somehow not mentioned the section under which the letter of credit has been opened."

"No." Draco said. "Though the section and everything is present, that section is not used. As you are aware that your letter has the term for unlimited credit, I just wanted to know the extent of credit would you wish?"

The count looked at the chairman of the bank as if was a mosquito who was continually annoying him and was coming in the danger of being swatted out of his misery.

"The reason I had requested for an unlimited credit was because I did not know how much may I spend over here. But, ah!" Harry paused. "You are not really asking me this, are you? You have limited funds and may require to arrange for them should my demands may be out of your budget."

Draco was visibly miffed now. If anything, he was a Malfoy and the richest known man of England. He was damned if his credit would be questioned by an unknown person.

"I beg your pardon, Sir. The extent of my liquidity has never been challenged. The house of Malfoy is a bond in itself." Draco said a bit rudely.

"Then it would seem that I am the first to do so." The count replied, remaining calm despite the lack of composure of Draco. Fact be told, he was enjoying his present discomfort.

"I would like to tell you that should you be hard pressed and would also require a billion galleons…"

Draco could not even finish his sentence before he saw the pitiful impression on the counts face.

"What do you suppose such a pitiful sum would be to me, sir? If I had required such a pitiful sum, I would not have deigned to open a letter of credit. You are mentioning an amount that I am in a habit of keeping in my wallet." With that, he took out a wad of ten orders, made by the French government and drawn on the British wizarding government, payable to the bearer for a hundred million galleons each.

(((o)))

There was no greater way of putting Draco back in his place. After seeing the great wealth of the person in front of him, he was truly and utterly humbled. Although he had read the dossier on the count, he had more or less discounted the net worth figure. There was no person in the world that was that rich. Add to that, evaluations of privately held companies, was a dicey issue. Now, as he was being totally upstaged, he had no more option to back down. He would have to get into the count's good graces by actually doing some work.

Harry now decided to act magnanimous. It would be the final nail in the coffin. "Come now. Let's not get into this. I don't wish to create any trouble for you. I do not plan to be here for more than a year; hence let's assume that I shall not be drawing on for an amount of more than five billion galleons."

Draco was visibly humbled as his head was now nodding like a five year old.

Smiling, Harry got up and said, "In the future, such mundane activities will be handled by my secretary here." Draco nodded.

(((o)))

As the count stood up to go back, Draco had a brainstorm. He hurriedly got out of his chair and came to the count's right hand side.

"Dear Sir, I would like to apologize for my uncouth behavior and causing any discomfort to you. If you accept my apologies, kindly grace me your presence with your having a cup of tea with me and my family. It won't take long."

This was something Harry had not expected. He had no wish to meet Ginny. But he had to mould Draco according to him. Mentally sighing but outwardly showing not even a single emotion, he nodded.

Draco looked as if Christmas had come a month earlier, rather as if he had earned a cool million. Taking out some floo out of the floo bag, he turned to the count and said, 'the address is Malfoy Castle.' Accepting the floo powder, Harry waited for Draco to pass through. A few seconds later, he himself passed through. Unlike the old Harry, he did not fall. His years of training had given him perfect balance. He was so good at it that nobody even saw when he muttered the scourgify charm to clean the soot.

Harry looked around and saw, what was obviously, the grand hall. Draco was trying to impress him. His plan was working, not that he had had any doubts. His only apprehension was to meet Ginny or her son. But he would endure it.

Draco on the other hand was congratulating himself on getting the count here. He wanted him to meet Ginevra. Everybody was impressed by his wife. So much so that she was in greater demand in the social circle than he was. That may be also because she seldom went anywhere. But when she did, she was the star attraction.

Draco realized it and used it for what it was worth. Now was one of those times.

Harry had heard every one of Draco's musings. Internally, he pitied Draco. Ginny was a woman to be cherished, not used. Before he could think of anything, Ginny appeared out of one of the hallways. As soon as her eyes saw him, they both just stood still. Her face whitened and the only thing Harry heard was a single word, "Harry!"

_Author's Notes:_

Another chapter. Hope you like it.

**_gt_**


	10. Chapter 10

**The Count of Azkaban**

**Chapter 10**

As soon as Harry heard his name, his head whipped around to see Draco.

"Damn! My cover is nearly blown." Thought Harry to himself. Although he was sure that he could very easily prove that he was anybody but the boy-who-killed, he did not want even a single shard of connection with his previous life. Obliviation was an option but Voldemort was a master legilimens.

Harry was surprised to see nothing on the face of Draco, as if he had not heard it. Bewildered, Harry turned his head towards Ginny or Lady Ginevra and saw that all the blood of her face had flushed off, leaving her skin unearthly white. Being a red-head, she was cream white anyway, but this was very unsettling. Suddenly Harry realized that it was her thoughts that he had heard. She had been so shocked that her mind had screamed out aloud. Harry, probably after a very long time had mistaken between the two.

(((o)))

Ronald Weasley was in the foyer of the bank. He had to speak with Draco and have his line of credit extended. The Chuddley Cannons was killing his finances. Truth be told, he was bankrupt. But being the showman that he had become, his lavishness was inversely proportional to his financial health. He had been sure that a little blackmail would help him get the money he needed to tide over. He had been waiting for nearly ten minutes when his proverbial patience or rather the lack of it made him walk to the receptionist once more.

It was the same girl we saw an hour or so earlier speaking with blade. Ron strutted off to the counter and spoke quite rudely with grace.

"Where is Mr. Malfoy?"

Grace looked up and saw the furiously red face of Ronald Weasley. He was not a very popular man albeit a rich one. Had it not been for the fact that he was the chairman's brother-in-law, he would have been surrounded by the guards at the moment.

However, he was who he was and she would be facing the brunt of his ire.

Collecting herself, she looked up and looked straight into Ron's eyes and said, "Mr. Malfoy is in a meeting and rest assured, I have sent him a message regarding your arrival. He asked that you wait here in the lobby till he gets free and calls for you."

"What do you mean you have sent a message or wait here in the lobby? Do you know who I am? I can have you fired in a second. I don't believe you are doing your job. I have never ever waited in the lobby like a nobody." His shouting would have gone on had Scattermigger not arrived in the lobby to tell Mr. Weasley that he may need to wait a bit longer. However, before anything could be said, Grace, who had been reduced to tears, took her bag and ran off the bank.

Nobody saw her leave as all the attention was on the scene Ron was making. Well all except one.

(((o)))

Blade had walked out of the office after Harry had left with Draco. He was just about to disapparate when he heard the loud shriek of an uncivilized person. As he saw the poor girl reduced to tears and run away, he had a sudden inspiration. Call it an instinct, but his life was but a string of decisions made on instinct. As always, he believed in them. They had never let him down. As grace was passing him, he started walking behind her. Before she could cross the disapparation wards and leave, he put a hand on her arm, stopping her.

Grace had never ever been humiliated like that. She was from a proud old pureblood family which had stayed neutral throughout. Although, it had cost them her parents, she was still a part of respectable family. She had never had the chance to go to Hogwarts. Instead, her older sister had home-schooled her. Now, at the moment, she was working here not for money but because she did not want to sit idle. No-one had ever spoken to her like that and she could not bear it anymore.

Picking up her things, she walked off. She knew that leaving like this could mean her instant dismissal, but she did not care. As soon as she was about to pass the wards, a strong hand touched her arm, albeit gently. She turned around and saw the face of the man she had spoken to an hour or so ago. Something in his eyes stopped the rant which would have surely escaped her mouth a fraction of second later. A few moments later, she recognized the look. It would have been very akin to the angry look in her eyes at the moment, but it was mixed with honesty and trust. Somehow, she felt herself forced to trust this man.

As grace stopped and turned to see him, blade had been prepared for the tongue-lashing the girls are famous for. Surprisingly, grace looked at him and turned stopped. She just stood there; for a few moments. Blade felt it was the time to speak. He said, "I am Blade. We just met. I saw what happened just now. If you want to talk about it, we can stop for a bit of tea."

Grace was astonished. Not only for the strange offer from a man she hardly knew; but also because she found herself nodding and accepting the offer.

(((o)))

Cho Chang Weasley was, unfortunately for Ron, was shopping for some new clothes at attire', the new French boutique which was in rage. The prices were atrocious, but so were the clients. A single dress could keep ten families living comfortably for a year. So, it was the obvious that it had become the latest club of snobs. And so it happened that one of the dress-makers was in the bank during the entire scene.

"Have you heard?" Simone, the pretty and small French dressmaker started to spread the gossip around. She started by speaking with Eleanor Crabbe, the wife of Vincent Crabbe. As was usual for the gossip mongers, the snippet of the sentence was enough to have most of the ears trying their hardest to not miss a syllable of the newest gossip.

"What my dear Simone?" Eleanor said in a tone which clearly wanted to give the impression that she was already privy to the news but wanted to hear it anyway. Not fooled at all, Simone continued and told the entire chain of events which had occurred at the Gringotts. A few garnishes were obviously added, for flair. By the end of the narration, many women had their hands on their breasts with oohs & aahs escaping every now and then.

The one person, who had turned red at such embarrassment, was the wife of the man in question. She tried to discreetly apparate away, which was highly unlikely as her apparition was quite loud. There was a burst of sniggles as she disapparated. Such is the treacherous and lonely world of snobs.

Though one thing is sure, if Ron was to come back at night, he wouldn't have much of a rest.

(((o)))

The relief in Harry's mind and the amazement in Ginny's heart were probably not that different in the degree of emotion felt inside. Now to the credit of both, if one was to see them, he would be hard pressed to say anything of much consequence had passed, except for the paling of Ginny's pallor.

Observing protocol, showing he was a man of high birth and station, he bowed gently. Their eyes met and surprisingly for both of them, they had a conversation. Strangely, time had not eroded their silent communication. It was not unlike the ones they used to have while dating in secret. Harry was apprehensive about his identity being known, but his mild legilimens probe told him that she could be trusted.

Ginny was in great turmoil as well. As soon as she saw the man Draco introduced, her heart recognized the man. Although, years of hiding her true self hid the fact and so did her body. There wasn't a single change in the posture of her body. Only her eyes lit up for a second and she paled for a few seconds. In less than a fraction of a second, she stood with the same straight back and the elegance and style which separated her from the wannabes of the wizarding world. The color in her face returned to normal too. Draco was so busy looking at Harry, he missed this important detail.

Although she was glad that Harry was alive, she had a lot of anger which was threatening to burst up for his betraying her, making her believe that he was dead.

But all of this would be settled later; at the old place, at the old time. That is what their eyes had spoken and agreed. Now was the time with Draco.

(((o)))

Draco was totally oblivious of the mayhem happening around him. He was a master legilimens, but both Harry and Ginny were talented. He didn't stand a chance.

At the moment, he was mentally planning on how to get close to the count and come into his good graces.

"My dear Count! Allow me to introduce my wife, Lady Ginevra to you." With that, Harry bowed a bit once again, which was appropriately reciprocated.

Now turning to Ginny, Draco said, "My Lady! I need only mention one small thing to you which would make all the ladies of London swoon. Our esteemed count here has decided to spend an amount of nearly five billion galleons for the present year and he has chosen our city as the venue for his lavishness." Although Draco had said the words the butter up Harry, in all his excitement, he had overlooked the fact at how utterly common he looked at the moment.

"Let's head to the hall and have a bit of tea." Draco continued. Nodding, Harry followed Draco as Ginny started to walk beside him. A few moments later, all three of them were sitting comfortably on a sofa, with a cup of earl grey in their hands and assorted pasteries and biscuits lying down on the table in front of them. The house elves had clearly tried their best.

"So, my dear count! Where have you decided to put up for the year. I sincerely cannot see a parsonage as yours living in a Hotel or a common house." Draco asked. He had several properties which were enormous and well made. He wanted to lend one of them. With their special charms and wards, he was bound to find out everything that happened there.

"Come Lord Malfoy! You must have read my dossier and if I am correct, your many contacts would have already told you some things about my lifestyle. Do you really suppose that I would be badly lounged, even if it was for only a year?" Harry said in the same cold tone that he had used in the office while talking about the letter of credit.

Draco was clearly disconcerted. All his ploys were falling flat on their faces.

"I am aware and was only trying to offer you what I have to you, should it be of any use to you."

"I am grateful for the offer but my lounges are nearly prepared. As a matter of fact, they should be completed by the time I return." Harry said offhandedly, sounding a bit mollified. He had been using his different moods to unsettle Draco. The longer he was on his toes, the better it would be for him.

Draco knew that the count had bought the island of Azkaban, but he felt that it was probably as an investment. After all, nobody buys junk for that price. He had had no information on any unknown or foreign purchases being made in any of the surrounding areas. As his bank was the sole arbitrator of such deeds, he would have found out. That was the reason he had thought of offering the count one of his many manors. He would have to find out where the count lived. He didn't want to ask out. He was very unsure of how the count would treat such a query. An introduction to the chairman of LeBeau was very important to him.

Ginny, however had no such qualms. She wanted to see Harry in as much hot water as she could without going overboard.

"So where are you putting up count?" she asked in the demure way as if asking where he bought the tie-pin.

Harry was not ignorant of the workings of Ginny's mind. So he answered truthfully. He took out a gold card, magically engraved. One could see the white palace shining in the moonlight on the card. On the top was a simple name, The Count of Azkaban.

Ginny was totally be-spelled by the vision of beauty she saw in the card. She was also aware of the significance of the island to Harry. She was speechless.

Harry took out another card and gave it to Draco.

Draco was speechless. It was, undoubtedly, the most beautiful palace he had ever seen.

"Unfortunately, I have some things to take care of. I would like to take your leave." Harry said, standing up abruptly.

Both of them nodded as Harry used the floo once more to go to the bank and then disappeared from there.

(((o)))

Blade was looking at the smiling girl in front of him. In the last half an hour, she had calmed down and now, with her hair down and smile on her face, she looked like an angel. With all that he had found out about the girl, he was sure that his instincts were correct. The count should know of this. Promising to meet again, and getting her floo address, blade left to meet the count or wait for him.

(((o)))

Draco returned to his office to find a harried looking Scattermigger. A few moments later, he was seeing red as he heard of Ron's activities and of the receptionist's departure. He was getting angry. Ron had left, after creating the scene but it was not a minor disturbance. Draco's patience was running thin and Ron was using the last of his lifeline.

(((o)))

Ginny was looking at her hands as tears were slowly falling of her face into her lap. She had been numb from the shock of seeing Harry alive, and a bit angry. Now she was getting angrier at Harry for making her believe that he was dead when it was apparent that he was not. On the other hand, one part of her was so happy that her heart nearly threatened to burst up. But utilizing all the patience she had had to develop over the last many years, she waited till dusk.

(((o)))

Harry had entered his private apartment just a few moments ago. As always, a glass of his favorite wine was on the table, cooled to the exact temperature that he liked it. "Stout" Harry mused.

Before he could do much, he heard a slight knock and the door turned into a one way mirror. It was one of many security tools his company had become famous for. He saw Blade, looking a bit excited. Harry wondered what it was as he, without even moving, unlocked the door.

"Count! You have to hear this." With that blade told him all that had happened with Ron's visit at the Malfoy Bank. Although the information was useful, but not that important until he came to find out the name of the receptionist. Well actually the full name. Her name was Grace Anne Zabini, the younger sister of Blaise Zabini. A few seconds later, Harry apparated through the wards, directly into the Zabini Manor.

He was just about to take his first step when he felt a stunner head straight towards him.

_Author's Notes:_

Sorry. I have been busy with something and have been late in the last few updates. Hope you like it.

PS: I have been asked by few of the reviewers regarding the age of Harry. Let me clarify, nowhere have I mentioned his actual age, just that he looked that old.

**_gt_**


	11. Chapter 11

**The Count of Azkaban**

**Chapter 11**

Ginny was sitting still, almost unnaturally so. From afar, her face was devoid of all emotions. It was not unless somebody looked at her very closely that one could imagine how tightly she was wound up. Her face was taut and her eyes were looking straight at a single spot on the wall. She looked as if made by stone.

Internally, however, she was anything but calm. Millions of emotions were washing her over. She was happy that Harry was alive; she also hated him for being alive and not helping her. She had had the worst thirteen years of her life and the boy she had loved, had just disappeared making her believe that he was dead. It was a set of complex emotions that even she could not completely understand. All she knew was that she had been catty while talking with Harry.

On some level, she had been surprised that both of them could still use their silent communication. Well she would see him tonight. Thinking that, she laid back on her bed, all the memories of her yesteryears flashing by her eyes.

(((o)))

Harry Potter was one of the most powerful magical beings in the world. Looking at his controlled self would not give you the impression, but it was the truth none the less. Being a somewhat blend of a wizard and a high elf, he was gifted in both use as well as aid of magic. One of the senses that his being of elven heritage had given him, was the sight. It was not the sight one would associate with foretelling and prophecies, but the sight of magic. If he wanted, he could see the magic all around him. From the smallest charm to the most powerful enchantment, he could see anything. The colors and shades and all. More than that, he had developed a feel for magic. And when he felt a powerful stunner hurled at him, he did the one thing no-one would do; nothing.

The light blue beam of light came near him and was absorbed by him. Rather, it was absorbed by an elven defensive shield. Harry almost smiled as he saw the two witches who held their wands at him. He could feel that the spell had come from the younger Zabini's wand, but he looked straight back into the blue eyes of a friend.

"Hello Blaise!" There should have been a single thud as Blaise's body fell on the floor. Frankly, Grace, who was now looking at her sister's body, was scared out of her wits. In front of her was the hovering body of her sister. Although she was damned sure no spell had been cast by the strange man.

As she saw the strange unknown person approach them, she leveled her wand straight to his chest.

(((o)))

Ronald Bilius Weasley was standing in the director's room at the national Quidditch stadium, totally covered in sweat. As soon as he had left the bank, he had apparated here and had been on the broom, working off tension. Now as he looked back at his life, he could only see one thing; the height he had attained. He would do anything to keep his position.

As he looked back once again to the events at the Malfoy Bank, he got very pissed off. How dare that slip of a girl try to make him wait in the lobby? He was Ronald Weasley, after all. Ever since his childhood, Ron had had a complex. He had always felt inferior because of their apparent financial situations. Very early, after seeing Harry's money, he had vowed that come hell or high water, he would get rich. Nothing would stand in his way. And nothing had. Not his parents, his brothers or his sister. Neither had his childhood love, Hermione or his best friend, Harry-the-bloody-boy-who-didn't-die-potter.

But now, he was seeing it all slip away. His teams' poor showings and the backing off of his sponsors had been killing him and the scene he had just created, would no doubt displease Draco. He decided to go later in the evening rather than now. Maybe, Draco would have cooled down a bit.

He was damned if he would loose it all. Damn that potter. He still blamed the green eyed boy for everything that went wrong with him. Old habits die hard. Especially of those who are used to dump all their failures on others.

(((o)))

Lucius Malfoy was sitting in his office, looking over the working of the wizarding government. It had gotten a lot boring over the years. So much so that most of the times Lucius believed that he was in a pseudo jail than anything else; with no liberties and only shadow of power. His son had forsaken him a long time back after marrying that Weasley girl. Now-a-days, he had been relegated back to being the personal assistant of the ex-dark-lord.

Now that they had the world, he wasn't enjoying it. All of his dreams of ruling by the side of the dark lord had failed. In the beginning, when he had pledged his loyalty, support and finances to help Voldemort, he had asked for and gotten a magical contract. When lord Voldemort took control of the wizarding world, he would become the king and make him the minister of magic.

The dark lord had followed the letter of the agreement but not the spirit. He had been reduced to fate worse than death. But he was under a magical contract to the dark lord as well and he was paying for it right now. Prodding on with his work, he looked at the file recently sent by the French government regarding their selling the island of Azkaban to a wealthy businessman as his county. Lucius opened it and was just about to sign when he caught sight of something.

After a long-long time, an evil glint came back into his eyes.

(((o)))

Harry just reached near the fallen Blaise and smiled. As if by magic, which it was, Blaise's eyes started to flutter open and she saw the smiling face of a man she had met some months ago looming over her. She smiled, her eyes lighting up. Grace was totally taken aback by the smile on her sister's face. Who was this man?

"Hello John!" Blaise said. She seemed to be trying to control something inside her. As a matter of fact, she was in great tumult. But it was a great thing. When she had last seen john, she was leaving him to get back to England. She wanted revenge for her parents and she wanted peace with her earlier life. She needed to settle her dues before walking into her future.

"Hi yourself Blaise" Harry said.

As Blaise looked into the green eyes, she fell back into the time a few months back, while she was in Paris, on the run.

Flashback

It was a beautiful evening in Paris. As always, love was in the year but she had no time, nor inclination for a mundane concept as love at the moment. She was running for her life.

(((o)))

It had started nearly a decade ago when her parents had been killed by lord Voldemort. He had suspected that the Zabini's had a book with a ritual for immortality. Not able to get it, he had killed both of them. The only reason they were spared was because he didn't know they were there. They had been hiding in a charmed security closet.

They had left and went to live with their uncle, their father's brother, in France. But it seemed the honeymoon was over now. After all these years, they had been found again.

Traversing the back alleys, she had been on the run for some days now. She couldn't use magic, as her wand had been lost during the minor scuffle earlier. Her only hope was the muggle open area. Even that, she knew, was temporary. These death eaters did not worry about concepts like muggles. They would not be the ones doing Obliviation anyway, so who cared.

It was at this juncture of her life that, while on the run, she entered the huge building made of glass and steel, apparently a modern structure. The lobby was full, busy with hundreds of people moving in and out. Her dress was all wrinkled up and dirty at places, but with aplomb borne off her breeding and heritage, she walked into the ladies room and shut herself off. She did not know when she dozed off.

It was nearly three hours later that she was woken out of her fatigue induced slumber by an insistent knock on the door. In the beginning she was afraid and panicked. Then she relaxed a bit. Had it been wizards, they would not have bothered knocking. Getting up and straightening her skirt, she opened the door and found herself in front of a female security officer.

"Yes!" she asked politely.

"I am sorry to disturb you. But our security saw you enter the building a few hours ago but you were not seen later. As part of our security, we were checking up on you to see if you are fine."

Blaise was sure that it was more than that, but there was no point in arguing. She would just have to get out of here and try to hide somewhere else. Her aunt and uncle were already dead and the only saving Grace was that Grace was out on vacation with friends. Without her wand, she could not even apparate and no one would believe her story about wizards and without her wand, she was as good as a squib.

"I am fine. Just had a headache. I will be fine. Thanks for the concern." She nodded and side-stepped the security person to face her fate. A few tears escaping her eyes. She only wanted Grace to be fine.

"Excuse me ma'am!" the security woman called after her. "Our head of security wants to see you."

Resigned to her fate, she nodded. Over the last few years, she had withdrawn unto herself and grown pensive. Her only objective was Grace's safety. Now, she had accepted her fate. She just hoped that Grace would be better at enjoying her life than her.

She followed the security officer to the elevator.

As she got off the elevator, she saw a young man in business suit waiting for them to get off.

He offered his hand to her and said, "Hello miss Zabini. We have been looking for you."

Blaise did the only thing possible and fainted.

(((o)))

It was several hours later that she woke up. She was in a beautiful room, furnished with utmost elegance. In a few seconds, she got her bearing and remembered all that had happened. She felt strangely comfortable. With the skirt and blouse that she had been wearing, she wouldn't have been so comfortable. She looked and saw that she was wearing a comfortable night dress.

She looked around to see if she could find something about the owner of the room by the things that were lying here. She got up and tried to look around. It was so elegant and comfortable that she was sure it belonged to a wealthy rather than a rich man. But there were no personal effects what-so-ever. There were thousands of questions in her mind and not a single answer. But this was far better than the defeat she had accepted a few hours earlier (she knew the time from the time piece on the wall). She decided to go out and find out things for herself. There was a nagging hope in her mind that these people may be aware of the wizarding world. They knew her name and the odds were that they were wizards.

Steeling herself, she straightened up, put on a robe and opened the door.

(((o)))

As she stepped outside, she entered what was obviously a huge hall. It looked even bigger than the great hall at Hogwarts. Just as she stepped out in the hall, the same young man she had seen earlier approached him and smiled at her.

"Hello Miss Zabini. Allow me to introduce myself. I am known as blade." He said with a smile and obvious charm of an adventurous person.

She just tried to smile, still apprehensive.

"Don't worry about your troubles. They have been taken care of. All they will remember is that they killed you in an alley. Their wands will show appropriate curses."

The last words were more informative for her than all the other pleasantries. They confirmed one thing that she had guessed. She was indeed amongst some very powerful wizards.

"Thank you seems so inadequate. But thanks anyway." She said, with genuine relief.

"I am not the one you should be thanking, Miss Zabini."

Blaise was perplexed. She wanted to meet her silent savior. As if understanding her thoughts, blade took her arm and led her to the massive grounds outside. There she saw a man younger than all of them, sitting in a lotus position. He seemed to be meditating. Even from afar, and in such a restful stage, he seemed very powerful. His aura seemed to touch her and rejuvenate it. Suddenly his eyes opened and she saw the greenest eyes ever.

End Flashback

That was the first time she saw John Edward Smith and now tears started to flow from her eyes as she looked at them once more. She stood up, put her arms around him and cried. Grace was totally bewildered as she saw her usually-in-control sister let go and fall in the arms of this stranger. As if by itself, her wand arm went down as she saw her sister slowly trying to control herself.

After so much time, he saw a hint of smile on Blaise's face and she was in awe of the man who could help her sister.

_Author's notes:_

I would like to thank all my reviewers and hope that they will bear these late updates. It's a particularly busy time at work these days.

Tera Earth: Yeah I know Blaise is a boy, but I liked it better when he could have been a girl. In fanfiction, we take many liberties with the creator's characters. I have taken this one. Thanx.

Let me know what you think of this one.

**_gt_******


	12. Chapter 12

**The Count of Azkaban**

**Chapter 12**

Grace was still filled with shock at seeing her sister react this way. The last time she had seen her sister smile had been moths ago, rather nearly a year. And if this man could make her sister smile; all the better. Now she saw her sister disengage herself from the man she called John.

"When did you come here? How did you find me? How did you get through all the wards? Is there a loophole in the protective charms?" Blaise would have gone on and on had Harry not stepped in and put a hand on her mouth.

He had had conflicting feelings for Blaise since he had met her. During his excursion to the human realm, he had been lonely. He was not used to being lonely anymore. With all his family in the elven realm, he now depended upon love. However, since he had been back, the memories of his old love had returned.

(((o)))

Flashback

In a blinding white flash of light, Harry appeared in the cell he had disappeared from so many years ago. His face was resolute and he looked at the ring which adorned his right middle finger. It was a beautiful platinum ring with a magical stone. It was given to him by his grandfather just before he left. It was also a portkey. It would take him to the goblin headquarters as soon as he came to this world. And as promised, in a blink of an eye, Harry felt the odd feeling in his navel as he disappeared from the cell. Damn, he hated portkeys.

Harry appeared in a huge room. It was magnificently built in the elven architecture with milk white marble. Unlike the human white marble, this was quite sturdy and tough. As soon as he appeared, he felt a several charms being triggered from the room. Quite aware of what was happening, he sat down on a chair. Magically, a glass of his favorite beverage appeared on a floating tray just to his right hand side. He had not even finished his glass when he heard a discreet knock on the door.

He stood up and walked to the door and opened it. In front of it were several goblins that he would later find out were the most powerful members of the goblin council. Over next several weeks, he found about the goblin's escape from Britain and their divestment from the British wizarding world as well as the huge financial empire he had control of because of him being the reagent of the high elves (his ring proclaimed him so). He found out about his controlling share in the LeBeau and several other companies. Smith enterprises was an extremely profitable company. As the goblins owned 15 of the company, they made sure than it was a money minting enterprise. Even more so because the high elves were the ones who had helped goblins start the banking business.

He also inherited two very good aides and acquired the third.

It happened a few days later.

(((o)))

Harry was going through the various entities and corporations where he had majority and/or substantial interests. Thanks to the diligent effort of the goblin managers, the elven corporation was probably the richest corporate in the world. As it was privately held, there were no stock markets to affect the net worth or any dependency upon them. As a matter of fact the total corporate liability was zero except for cross-corporate loans and advances. Harry was totally flabbergasted. His primary job was going fine. He had personally inspected the anchor and saw the magic around it.

The anchor of the elven realm had stabilized itself a bit as soon as he had come into the wizarding plane of existence. He had been working to hard to permanently solve the problem of the extreme imbalance. The anchor had been very strong. It was only due to the cumulative rise of several dark lords in the past, it had eroded bit by bit. However the majority of the damage had been done when Harry had crossed over and the balance had tilted far too much on a single side. Now, as the magic recognized his presence back, the equilibrium was slowly getting not too much one sided. It did not mean that the balance had been restored but that the drain was sufficiently controlled that the anchor had started to stabilize itself.

His immediate problem taken care of, he was now in the process of taking steps on a permanent basis. The only way to do was to fulfill his destiny and vanquish Voldemort. Over the last dozen years, he had grown strong enough magically to be able to do it. More than that, it seemed that Voldemort had mellowed out. Bloated with comfort, he had grown lax and was nowhere near the power he had wielded earlier. He was no means an ordinary wizard. He could still take on twenty aurors and come out victorious. But now, he would have to toil for it. The difference was huge in the rarified field of power that both of them were in. but Harry was not interested in revenge. He was perfectly content with the life he had. As a matter of fact, he sometimes almost felt obliged to Tommy boy. Had it not been for his meddling, he probably would have never met his family. True, had it not been for him, he would have had a family of his own; but the ifs and buts were always numerous and the outcome of such ifs & buts was always ambiguous. And he was happy. He just wanted to hurry back if possible.

(((o)))

During his several excursions into his muses, he heard a knock and came out of his reverie. As he looked up, he could see the aura of two very powerful wizards and a goblin. He recognized the goblin as Slitcork, one of the elders of the goblin councils. However, he did not know the other two. Deciding to let them enter, he mentally opened the door and the goblin walk in. the two wizards remained outside. It seemed a bit strange.

None-the-less, he stood up and welcomed the elder goblin. Respect was the currency most undervalued, and the lesson had been engrained into his soul in the past few years. Slitcork too nodded. No other wizard had gained enough respect before to get any response from the goblins.

As Harry saw him, he got a feeling that the Slitcork wanted something from him. However, as an elder, it was very difficult for him to ask for it. Understanding the dilemma, Harry did the one thing he should have done; he gave Slitcork the opening he required.

"Welcome to my humble abode. How may I be of use to you today?"

The change in the semantics was not lost on Slitcork and he smiled a bit of crooked smile. He was both happy as well as glad at the opening. His respect for Harry grew up a bit. This young elf-wizard had been surprising all of them. Although they knew his real name, and his history, none of them had expected such a powerful wizard to be so full of humility. That was one of the main reasons he had been asked by all the elders to approach him for the favor. He closed his eyes, starting the most important speech of his life.

"The Goblins and the Elves have been allies since time immemorial. During the same time, we both have helped each other. And today, I would like to ask you for some help in the name of that alliance."

It was a big thing for the goblins to say. They were asking a favor which he would have to fulfill, if it was in his power. As his power was on the extreme side, he was sure the favor would not be an ordinary one.

"If it is in my power to help you, I will do all I can." Harry said, committing himself.

Instead of the happiness which should have sparked in his eyes, the elder goblin nodded wearily.

He said, "Not many people are aware of this but the most sacred place of the goblin race is situated right underneath the Gringotts branch in the Diagon alley. Since the day we were forced to flee from Britain, we have kept the place under very strong wards. But now, the wards are starting to disintegrate. In a few more years, they will be weak enough for tom riddle to break through. Once he reaches and takes over the crystal of the elders, we will be magically bound to serve him. That is a fate worse than death for all of us. Unfortunately, none of us can go near the wards to recharge the crystal. As is, it would take nearly a score of the most powerful goblins at least a month to do so. We would like to ask your help in protecting the goblin's race from extinction."

Harry was mulling over the request. It was indeed not a small thing for the goblins to tell him this. He doubted if the elder elves knew of this. The goblins were fiercely independent people and for an artifact to exist which can control all of them was their biggest danger. As a matter of fact, such information was very dangerous. Although goblins had run off the British Isles, they were still in the banking business. One of his companies owned the Le Beau, the biggest bank in Europe. It had gotten so big only after the goblins had transferred all their operation in this. Only now, they pulled the strings from behind.

(((o)))

He could see two different ways to help them. One was easy and the other was right. He really did not want to do the right thing. However resigned and honor bound to do it, he looked up and saw straight into his eyes and said, "There are two possible solutions which come into my mind. One is that if somehow, someone can charge your crystals. However that is both a temporary solution and to find such powerful wizards would not be an easy task. But still it is the easier way." He could clearly see that though this was not the ideal response they hoped from him, but it was acceptable.

However, he still knew what the right thing to do was. As it was his destiny, he could not run away from it forever. He remembered a tale which was part of the basic lore of the elves. Once a king foresaw great tragedy in his kingdom and the gods asked him, "Should this happen today or later." After much thought the king replied, "Today." Over the next ten years, king was dethroned due to mutinous and evil cousin, his family was separated and he was thrown in a dungeon. However, he did not loose hope. He escaped, ran away, regrouped and took his kingdom back. Several years later, when the king told his wife of his dream and his response, the queen asked him for the reason he replied 'Today.'

The king said, "Then I was young and powerful. I could have and have surmounted the adversities. I fulfilled my destiny. I doubt that I could have overcome those problems after growing old."

Harry's problems were not much different. He now understood why this story had been repeated to him over and over. He looked at the elder goblin and finally gave in, a wry smile on his lips as he said, "Or, we could take out Tommy boy."

A genuine, twenty four carat smile escaped the elder goblin's lips as he, probably for the first time in his life, bowed to a non-goblin person.

(((o)))

Over the next few months, everybody prepared for the entry of John Edward Smith in the British world. It had been decided that the time was long past when an open conflict would be of much benefit. Harry did not have an army, though he had the means to make one, he did not wish to impose any harm on even a single person. Hence the most devious plan was hatched by Harry.

Over the next few months, he made significant purchases in the British wizarding world, taking over several key companies as well as engaging in business with several key players under the veil of corporate identities. He bought the island of Azkaban from the French ministry, obtained the title of a count and took several steps to make sure that he would soon get into the crème'-de-la-crème' of the British wizarding world.

He was also introduced to the two powerful wizards he had felt earlier. One was the person we now know as Blade and the other was Nkola. The third, well, he just appeared one day, crossing all wards and charms; one day, when Harry was steeling himself to face the many people he knew. Despite the peace he felt from far away, as the days neared for him to fulfill his destiny, he started to worry. All the betrayal he had put behind him, started to bubble back. His anger, long lost under the veil of time and love, started to make its presence known.

Ron, Hermione and Ginny; Remus, Dumbledore and McGonagall; all his trusted ones and all that had betrayed him. He hated them more than his usual enemies. Their efforts to kill or subject him to pain were expected. But his friends were the guilty ones.

Just as he was thinking about Blade and Nkola, who had gone ahead to scout for him, he thought about the one person he knew would never loose faith on him. He thought about a tennis-ball-eyed green house-elf, dobby. Through the fabric of space and magic, a green light flashed in front of him and dobby appeared out of nowhere. It had been one of the happier days of his life.

After bonding with him, dobby grew in magic as well as physique. Due to Harry's unique circumstances, dobby turned into the person we now know as scout.

End Flashback.

(((o)))

Now, as he looked once more at Blaise, he was pulled in two directions. His yearning for companionship against what his heart remembered as betrayal. The tug-of-war was on. Even he did not know who would win this battle of Harry's life.

Smiling at the odd situations fate seemed to tailor-make for his life, he looked at both the sisters. Just for a moment, his yearning for companionship won and he said, "I will answer all of the questions if I can. Why don't the both of you join me at my place for some lunch? I trust you and I hope you trust me."

This was perhaps one of the first unplanned move, he had made in his plan. No-body knew what the effects of this simple request would come out to be.

_Author's Notes:_

Hi Again! Here's another chapter for all of you.

The history lesson is more or less over now and the story will move ahead from now on.

Hope u all enjoy reading it.

**_gt_**


	13. Chapter 13

**The Count of Azkaban**

**Chapter 13**

The woman we see now was a tall, brunette. By seeing her face, anybody could see that she was not the one too involved in beautifying herself. By no means, was she ugly or not-good looking. She just seemed unaffected by what she looked. Not very unlike several dedicated people we know of. She was wearing plain cargoes with a mélange top. It was her eyes that gave away. Her blue were strong and spoke of quiet power and intelligence. Although, one could see that she had suffered life and ghosts of sadness were never far away.

The woman needs no introduction. She was Hermione Granger.

Hermione was at the moment in India, more specifically in the ancient town of Varanasi or Banaras. It was a small town, not big by any standards and full of extremities. She saw people who were rich and who were poor, like any other country. But the poor seemed a lot more. But that is not the reason she was here. This was one of the oldest magical towns and it was rumored that in their archive of the ancients, or so they were called, was the mention of an artifact which can find anybody, anywhere. No charms or spells could stop it. If the person being sought was dead, sometimes, it could even help communicate with them. The artifact was supposedly created by the ancients; who were supposed to be the origins of magic on earth.

Ever since the downfall of the British wizarding world, she had been trying to find the one person she hoped could get them out of this depravity, her best friend, Harry potter. At that time, when she had heard of his incarceration, she had vowed to set him free. She had fallen back on the one thing she knew, books. She had been researching the modes and methods for so long that she was probably the best and most powerful witch specializing in the location spells.

But all her efforts had been of no avail. She had been unable to find Harry. But the strange thing was that several ancient spells had shown that he was alive, just not where. However, for the last several months, she had started to get a blip on her scrying spells. Although she could not get a fix, she was sure that he was present someplace in the European continent.

Buoyed by these facts, she had upped her research and had found an obscure entry in some ancient tomes. It described a place where one would find what one wanted. She had come here to find the details. As the tome was of Indian origin, she had started her search from here.

(((o)))

Harry appeared in his castle with the two ladies. As usual, with his arrival, several elves and his assistants fell into immediate action, and several elves immediately took the cloaks they were wearing and they settled and soon, Blaise opened up to her sister about her times with john smith. Time flew away on wings and it was nearing the dusk that Harry remembered the promise he had made to Ginny. Still feeling ambivalent about the situation, he none the less decided to go to the place of many wonderful evening and a reminder of such a killing heart break.

It was to the place of such emotional upheaval, that he made way to.

(((o)))

Ginny had not had a good day. Ever since the incident, she had been waiting for the dusk to come. Her cries had simmered down a long time back but the haunting had not left hr eyes. Now, she had un-adorned herself with all the glamour and trappings that was attached with her being the lady Malfoy. At the moment, she was wearing a simple dress, her hair pulled back in a pony tail. One could see a glimmer of what used to be Ginny Weasley; that is if one did not look in to her eyes. The eyes were not of either. They were neither the eyes of a happy Ginny or an elegant lady Malfoy. Perhaps, for the first time in many years, they truly reflected the person in the body.

Anyway, without looking at herself in the mirror, Ginny apparated to the special spot, on the lake shore and waited for Harry to come.

(((o)))

Ron was not having a great time. After sweating like a pig and being jealous like a bee and loosing a lot of money, he too came to the place where his own path of destiny was to be decided once more. He apparated to Diagon alley and walked over to the Malfoy bank. As he approached the help-desk, he could Scattermigger standing there. In no time, he was ushered into the private cabin of a Draco Malfoy. Instead of being in his usual seat, Draco stood facing the fireplace. His back ram rod straight. One could almost taste the tension in the room.

Scattermigger hurried out of the room, leaving a very worried Ron behind. He had an odd feeling that the evening would not be a pleasant one for the young Mr. Weasley.

(((o)))

Harry had already reached the lakeside when he heard the soft pop of Ginny arriving. However, as he was standing on the side of his favorite tree, both of them could not see each other. Taking a deep breath, Harry took a step forward and looked into the brown eyes of Ginny Weasley.

"Hello Ginny" his voice was ice cold and bellied the fuzzy feeling in his stomach. Ginny almost cringed at the tone of his voice. None-the-less, an instant later, he found himself enveloped in the crying form of Ginny Weasley. Just what was it with him and crying girls was a mystery he would never solve.

(((o)))

Hermione had found herself looking at a waterfall. Although, she could not find magic there, it was a beautiful sight. After apparating from place to place all over the day, she was tired. She just wanted some shut eye, before she resumed her search. She took out a small pin from her bag and waved her wand at it. It was the latest thing from smith enterprises. A complete survival kit, built in a small belt; with food, shelter and all the other requirements. And in no time, a small sleeping bag was formed and Hermione went into the bag to get some sleep.

Some time later, she was assaulted with a huge flash of white light. Although she had had a lot of experience at sighting magic, and had become very good at it, she could see some serious magic enveloping the waterfall. It was so strong that her advanced sight was literally being overloaded. She was seeing pure white, the highest aura of magic she had ever seen.

_Flashback_

Hermione had met Bhargava Shastri, the contact she had been given by the people in the states. He was a young wizard with the ministry of magic in India. From there on, she had gone into the archives, trying to find the information on the artifact that she wanted to find. After several hours of research, she came across the mention of an artifact known as 'the path'. Simply put, it was supposed to be a place where one would find the way to what one seeks. The path was not always clear, but the destiny was. Hermione was going to find Harry.

After careful analysis of the life of the ancient sage, she had surmised several possible sites for the artifact. And since then, she had been apparating from place to place, trying to find the path. But it had been of no avail. Although, she had found several very interesting things, it was not what she wanted.

Nearing the dusk, she apparated to the coordinates listed and found herself looking at a waterfall, crystal clear water falling and a beautiful rainbow crowning the scene. Unlike all other places, she found no traces of magic there. But the fatigue seemed to catch up and she decided to rest a bit here.

_Flashback ends_

Hermione slowly opened up her eyes, squinting. It was her natural reaction to the heavy magic she was sensing. As she opened her eyes, she was totally flabbergasted.

The moon light was falling on the water and instead of the rainbow she had seen earlier, there was a golden arch in its place; and a path leading to it. Throwing all caution to the wind, she braced up and walked into the arch; betting her life on a millennia old lore.

(((o)))

It was sometime before Ginny disengaged herself from Harry. She slowly realized that her Harry would have been comforting her, muttering sweet nothings in her ears. This man, however, was uneasy; a bit stiff, as if unable to decide how to react. She looked up and saw the similar green eyes of the old, but they were different.

They had grown up, just like she had; wrought with pain, heartbreak and sadness. She also saw ambivalence. She could feel the old Harry, her Harry, was in there somewhere; but the one in control was the new Harry. The one who had been introduced to her as the Count of Azkaban. She wondered once more as to what had happened. He was supposed to be long dead, lost in the island of Azkaban.

Harry could hear everything she thought. He could feel the pain she felt for him and the pain she had suppressed unto herself. This was a very big gamble for him. He had already planned that if there was an ounce of doubt in his mind, he would obliviate her. Using his powers, Harry began to look into her mind. Some would say that he was doing the same thing that Dumbledore had done or what Voldemort still does, but this is the curse of the powerful. The game being played was for very high stakes and a small mistake could cost many lives. Harry had vowed not to loose a single one on his side; and he was going to try his best to keep this between as few players as possible.

As he went through her life, he was amazed at the sadness and betrayal that she had seen and felt. He found several things which proved the resilience of Ginny. He at last was sure of one thing, Ginny had never betrayed him. Her other secrets were something he would allow her to reveal herself in her own time. But at last, he felt a part of his heart lighten, and a long lost feeling of warmth enter a very cold part of his soul. He was filled with an odd yet beautiful energy.

He looked straight in the chocolate brown eyes and without even thinking, kissed Ginny.

Ginny, on her part was feeling strange. Harry was looking straight at her and was not moving a muscle. Despondent, and heart broken, she was about to turn away. She had seen one of her wish coming true. Harry was alive and well. If he did not love her anymore, she could bear that. Too much water had passed under the bridge. But she was happy none-the-less.

Suddenly, she saw his lips curve upwards in a smile and in an instant later, she felt him kissing her. It felt as if the heaven had smiled at her. Both of them embraced and suddenly, for a moment, it felt as if they were their younger selves once more. They both fell asleep, under the stars, beneath their favorite tree. It was not until quite later on that Harry woke up. An instant later, he apparated both of them to his castle. He laid Ginny on his bed, and sat on the seat opposite it, gazing at her. He never knew when sleep took over him.

(((o)))

Draco had been fuming earlier but at the moment, he was planning. His anger at his inability to mould the count's action had been a heavy blow to his ego. All his plans were based on getting close to the count; and it was just not happening his way. On top of that, his esteemed brother-in-law was a constant pain in the butt. He had been paying the poor excuse of a wizard for so long. It was time for him to pay the price once again. The price of Ginny had long been paid, and Ron was in deep hock.

He felt the room alerting him of the arrival of Scattermigger and Ron. He allowed the wards to let them enter. He could feel Ron enter and felt the gaze on his back. Scattermigger receded and even he could feel the tension that had descended upon both of them. Making his mind at how to deal with Ron, he turned around and looked coldly at him.

"What is the meaning of the fiasco you created in my bank this afternoon?" his voice was colder if not s cold as his glare. Ron squirmed under it. But then his arrogance raised his head again.

"If you know what happened, you also know that why it happened. Don't speak to me as if I am your lackey. You still owe me for Ginny. And I am demanding what is due." Ron said brusquely. Ever the forgetful and quick looser of his head, he forgot that he was in deep loan with the bank, or that if Draco wanted, he would be on the streets. He had always cashed in on Ginny, and felt no reason that the same currency could not be used once more.

"Listen to me, you idiot. I have paid what I promised long ago. And I have a wizard's agreement with you. Out of goodness of my heart, I have suffered from your idiosyncrasies, but no longer. You owe me ten million galleons and change. If you as much as become the reason for another fiasco at my bank, I will foreclose on you so fast, you wont even feel me reaching for my wand. Do I make myself clear?"

Ron was in panic now. To cool his nerves, he had gone to casino and his luck had held steady. He had lost one hundred thousand galleons. He was supposed to pay up. He had to find the money; somewhere; somehow. And the only way to deal with it was Draco. He had to play the last gamble.

"Fine! But I need some money now. My team is loosing money and I need to hire some talent. One last time", Ron pleaded.

Draco sighed, and said, "How much?"

"Two million galleons." Ron replied.

"I can give you half a million, take it or leave it." Draco replied, cursing the day he had made the deal with Ron.

"One million; I need at least that."

"Not a sickle more." Draco said, not budging an inch.

Defeated, Ron nodded and Draco signed a slip and waved his wand at it. The line of credit against Ron's account was extended by half a million galleons.

Ron turned and went out of the office, not even bothering to mutter thanks.

Draco on the other hand, returned to think about the nemesis; the count of Azkaban. A plan started to form in his evil brain. The count had all the money in the world, and leaving that, there was only one way to control a powerful man. A smiled drifted across his face as he sat back on his chair and started to clearly define his plan.

Author's Notes:

Another chapter up. I hope you like how the story is shaping up.

I know the update was very late this time, but this time I have a wonderful excuse. I had a son a week ago.

**_gt_**


	14. Chapter 14

_Disclaimer: I don't own Harry potter and neither is this fic being written for any financial reasons. Harry potter is and will remain the creation and the property of JKR_

**The Count of Azkaban**

**Chapter 14**

Ginny woke in a strange yet unknown place. Like everybody else, at first, she panicked and then, of course, her eyes fell to the man she had truly been in love with. A flush of memories from last night flooded her mind. She smiled; truly smiled. After a long time, she felt peace in her soul.

However, in a moment, she remembered Artie. And the concern of the mother in her grew. She got up, and with a wave of her wand, set her dress right. She was about to bend down and kiss Harry, when his head shook up on its own, and smacked her right in the chin. She yelped and soon, both of them fell down, laughing,

"Trying to run away?" Harry asked her, as he once again looked into her eyes.

"No. Yes….ugh! I just wanted to check on Artie and would have come back." Ginny smiled, but then, a small look of sadness fleeted her face. Harry could very easily make out the look. Even if had not been a natural legilimens. She had always hoped that her children were his. Despite the fact that Harry knew her secret, he felt that it was up to her to tell him or not. The person who had read her mind was John Edward smith, the count. At the moment, he was Harry potter. He just hoped that one day, she would forgive his transgression and he hoped that he had the strength to confess before being caught.

At the moment, however, he just wanted to bask in happiness. But somehow, somewhere, he could feel another pulling at him.

Ginny, on the other hand tried to apparate but felt the barriers around the castle. She looked at Harry who just smiled and understood.

"Why don't we have some breakfast, and then I will escort you to the apparition point."

Ginny did not loose the import of the sentence. Although some of her Harry was back, he was not the same person. He had informed her that she would be taken to the apparition point rather than being keyed into the wards. It was yet another reminder to her of the things that had changed. She got the second one as both of them appeared in what seemed to be a private kitchen and dining room. There were three people having some food there, and she recognized one of them. She was definitely not happy.

(((o)))

Blaise had woken up in the morning and she felt light. In a long time, she had truly slept feeling safe. She had been on the edge for too long and it was tearing her down. More than that, she had started to admire and if she could even make herself believe, love the count.

He was brave, generous and thoughtful. Being rich did not hurt but that was not her issue. She could already discern her sister in the bathroom humming an old song. She again admired the man who could make such huge changes in the world of both of them. She smiled a small smile, the secret indiscernible smile of all women and got off the bed and waited for her sister to get out. She wanted to look her best when she met john again.

Half an hour later, she joined blade and her sister on the private dining table.

She heard foot steps approaching the table. As she turned around, she got the shock of her life. For in walked one of the most prominent ladies in England, Lady Ginevra Malfoy. She held onto the arm of the count in the most possessive manner. A small gasp escaped her throat as did another one which came from across the room.

Two groans also escaped the lips of Harry and blade. Even in the closed down stage, Harry was so powerful a legilimens that he knew that he was going to be in trouble.

(((o)))

Magic has no boundaries. It's limited only by the boundaries of imagination. This was the first and only rule of magic when magic first entered the human species. Along the lines, many rules were made and many spells were created. All of them had scaled the magic, trying to make it even and repeatable. What it had ended up doing was to limit the understanding of magic.

There were a few artifacts which were now lost, nowhere to be found. They belonged to the ancients. It was rumored that they were the very first users of magic. The path was one of them. Now, as Hermione passes through the arch, she felt as if she was being embraced. Over the period of several years that she had been looking for this, she had always felt that the magic of such a powerful artifact would be very strong and assertive. She was wrong. She felt as if she was loved and for a second that she was there, she felt peace; after a long-long time.

On the other side of the world, in the small island of Azkaban, inside the dining room of the castle, all hell broke loose.

(((o)))

Lord Voldemort was pacing about his chambers. He had received a package addressed personally to him. In it, there was documentary proof the treachery of the Malfoy clan. He had personally checked the documents and verified them. Lucius and Draco had embezzled a hundred million galleons from the sale of Azkaban to the French. Had it been old days, they would have been crucioed to insanity by now. However, he was just ready to take the first step towards world domination. He could not have such news floating about. Appearance of control and honesty were paramount. After a long time, anger started to build inside the dark lord as he felt the betrayal.

He looked at himself and saw what had become of him. In the race for political supremacy, he had let go off the magical supremacy. As he closed his eyes and looked inside himself and tried to find his magic, he could see a big lake where once, a huge endless ocean was present. He was weak and he hated weakness. He vowed to become the most feared wizard once more and those who had betrayed him would feel his wrath. Promising himself, he got up and walked towards the table. He picked up the envelope carrying the scrolls as a small card fell out, as if by magic.

He motioned his hand and the card started to float up towards him. Again, he realized how weak he had become. Earlier, at his mere thought, the card would have snapped into his fingers too fast to see. He looked at the white card written with gold. It read, "The Count of Azkaban". It was a wizarding card and hence, as soon as he read the name, the name turned into a small message.

"Your Majesty,

I am a visitor in your sublime kingdom. I was informed about a small discrepancy in the known information by my people.

I felt that it was my duty as your guest to inform you of any relevant information. I beg your forgiveness for this intrusion, but it was felt that this information is eyes only to you. I have more information which would be of immense use to you.

If I have offended you in any fashion, I pray for your mercy. For anything else, all information is on this card.

Your servant,

John Edward Smith

The Count of Azkaban'

Voldemort was baffled by the letter. He called up his secretary and asked for all information on the count of Azkaban, alias John Edward Smith. True to his efficiency, his secretary knocked the door before the hundred seconds was over. He looked at the file and opened it.

It was very interesting.

(((o)))

Draco woke up in his bedroom. Although it was seldom that Ginevra was with him, she had now become the center-piece of his plan to ensnare the count. Though many may have wished to believe that Draco was stupid, a person who had built such an empire was self-evidently not. He knew that she loathed him as much as he would have hated her had he been in her shoes. He was proud and she was no less so. This is what had initially attracted her to him. He could have had anybody but her. Ergo, he had to have her.

But now that he had, he felt no emotion. A Malfoy doesn't feel. It was their family motto; well one of them anyway. He had felt something happening between the count and Ginevra. He had feigned as if nothing had happened, yet, he would use the information now. There was nobody who was as vulnerable to blackmail as a proud man caught with his pants down.

Ginevra had suddenly become priceless. And he was going to use her. The game was world domination and all he needed was one roll. He would make sure that everything else falls into place.

"Tipsy", he called out to his personal house elf. With a pop, a small figure appeared in front of him.

"Where is lady Malfoy? Inform her that I wish to see her." He commanded. Instead of the usual pop he expected, he saw that elf had remained where he was and said in its small, squeaky, fearful voice, "Lady Malfoy went away last night and has not returned as yet. She did not tell when she would be returning"

"Where is Jr.?" Draco knew that Ginevra truly loved only one person, her son. His name had been a very big bone of contention between them, but due to the misogynist laws of the wizarding world, and his power, he had prevailed. Had she left for some long trip, he would have been informed as usual. A short trip and Artie would have accompanied her.

He wondered where she could have gone to. But their paths had strayed wide enough that both of them had allowed each other certain latitudes.

Nodding his head, Draco turned to the silent fireplace and sat on the sofa. His mind was on several questions and making even more plans.

For probably the first time in a long while, Draco Malfoy waited for someone other that the king.

(((o)))

Harry was just thinking about being in an awkward position when his security amulet turned red. It was tied with all the wards of the castle and at the moment, the message he got was unknown magical surge. He looked around and saw a small flicker of light trying to come through the barriers. During his stay with his grandfather, he had learnt a lot about the ancients and the portals. All the telltale signs of the present scenario were evident of a portal trying to break through.

He was sure that no modern day wizard was powerful enough or knew about such portals. With his mental command, he asked the wards to let the portal open up.

In less than a second, a golden arch opened up. White light was filling the whole area. He could feel several of his elves and security trolls coming into the room and looking at the strange light. Harry raised his hand, motioning them to stop.

In a second, they could see a figure, coming out like a shadow. It was definitely feminine. As the woman stepped out, nearly everybody recognized her as the ever brilliant and obviously missing, Hermione Granger.

Hermione looked dazed and looked around. Somehow, as she looked at Harry, she could feel that she had at long lost found her friend. A small whimper escaped her lips, accompanied by a tear drop and a name, "Harry!"

Nearly everybody was surprised as she ran to Harry and embraced him. Her search finally over as she felt him nod.

_Author's Notes:_

Hi! I am back. I am sorry for the delay but my son was very insistent that he stay up at night. Hence, I had almost no time.

It is a bit shorter, but I am getting back in the groove and hopefully it won't be another month before the next update. Hopefully in a week or so.

I hope you like it and keep reading it.

**gt**


	15. Chapter 15

**Harry Potter & the Count of Azkaban**

**Chapter 15**

Voldemort was doing something that he had not done in some time. He sat in lotus position and was meditating. Ever since he had seen the papers from the newly anointed count of Azkaban, he had been reviewing all that he had done in the last several years. Taking things in perspective and armed with the new intelligence, he could see several things that he had missed out on earlier. He had been altogether too much comfortable on the spell he had cast on Lucius. But now, he knew that he had to first set thing right with himself and in his house before venturing out to take over the world.

The foremost thing that was required out of him was to regain all the tenacity he had lost as well as his magical power etc.

So here he was, sitting down and trying to reconnect with his earlier self. He had already brewed a potion that would rid him of the extra flab he had accumulated over the years and give him back the strength of his youth. It did require a sacrifice of few wizards. Well, he couldn't be bothered about a few details. All he was worried about was that the potion be delivered to him as per schedule.

He had also thought about the enigmatic count and his intentions. He was sure that they were certainly more than what was apparent. He decided to invite him at the soonest available opportunity.

(((o)))

Draco was growing impatient. It was nearing noon and still there had been no news of Ginevra. Jr had been in the library, studying. He had wanted to leave several times to the bank; however he was unable to do so. The count was his ticket to the stratosphere he aspired to. He had been waiting trying to fine tune his plans. With Ginevra as the key player, all he could do was wait. However, patience was a virtue he had always lacked. Especially for things he really wanted.

He decided to pay a visit to his friend of convenience. She had been a constant diversion from his other activities. Both were unattached and independent.

He had tried to divert himself, but was unable to do anything about the strange uneasiness which had settled in his stomach. He did not realize the feeling, but it was very uncomfortable. He was unaware that the fates were turning the table and nobody knew who would come out on the top.

Leaving a message with his personal elf that he should be informed as soon as the mistress returned, he popped away.

(((o)))

The castle of Azkaban was a lively place. Joy just seemed to envelope the whole place.

_A few hours earlier _

Everybody was surprised at seeing the brilliant Hermione walk in the strange portal and enveloping Harry in a hug. Ginny was shocked but also relieved. For long she had tried to find Hermione. As a matter of fact, she had gone to US several times on elusive leads. Yet she had failed. She had felt in her heart that she would find a kindred soul in her.

Blade and Nkola were happy for Harry. They too had searched for Hermione for a long time but had found nothing. They had come to respect the brilliance of the young woman who was resourceful enough to hide even from them and all their contacts. Harry, on his return had been worrying about the fate of his best friend. Somewhere, down inside, he had hoped that she believed in him. But he had always wanted to know the truth.

Blaise and grace were actually shocked out of their boots, or rather sandals. They looked at the strange savior in front of him and saw the many things that he was. The elusive count, the magnanimous benefactor but his latest avatar was the most elusive. He was the boy-who-lived, the boy-thought-dead and actually the young man who saved all of them. However, Blaise could not totally crush a small seedling of disappointment at being kept from the fact.

Ever since she had seen Ginny in the morning, she had been feeling pangs of jealousy. She had realized that she had come to like the count. Reluctantly, she also accepted that she might even love him. But seeing Ginevra come out of his room in the morning, she had realized that there was competition. And now with Hermione making an entrance as well, she was not so sure of the dynamics of the circumstances.

She looked once again at the small huddle every one of them had formed in the den.

_Hermione's Tale_

Tears had been shed and embraces met. There was a happy sheen in the eyes of the normally placid Harry. Ever since his betrayal, and then his seeing the marriage of Ginny with Malfoy, he had lost hope in the wizard-kind. Even now, after he had seen the facts of the marriage of Ginny, he had not completely forgiven her. Absence of any information on the status of his other friends, Hermione, Neville, Luna etc had further added to his depression. Although, it was not shown to anybody, its presence could be felt none-the less.

So, after the initial shock and awe all of them had sat down in the den and Hermione began her story.

Hermione looked around, still feeling as if she was dreaming. She sat on a comforter, a cup of hot tea warming her hands. Around her were Harry, Ginny, Blaise and some knew people she didn't know. She had been introduced, but frankly, she was still in a shock. She knew that nobody had come out and said it out loud; however, she had been bottled up for so long, that it would be like catharsis to let it go. She should have felt some reservation about sitting in front of some strangers. But after hearing a summarized version of Ginny's story, she felt as if she should share hers as well.

She looked around once more, took a sip of hot tea and began.

"I was in the United States when I heard of the Harry's arrest." Hermione began. "We had gone to America because we found out that one of my uncles was a wizard. He had seen my picture in an out of date Daily Prophet. When he contacted us, we were also slightly shocked at Uncle Brian being a wizard. But after Hogwarts closed, we left. To make the long story short, Uncle Brian was working with the American equivalent of our unspeakables. We had a good time until the day we found out that Harry had been arrested.

We were out in the muggle world. We were in Florida on the wizard's portion of the Disney world when we saw the wizarding times (a wizard's newspaper). It had the story of Harry's arrest and conviction to Azkaban. I wanted to come back to try and help. I was sure that Harry was innocent. And even if he had killed somebody, he would have had a darned good reason to do so.

But Uncle Brian stopped me and took me to his office. Over the next few hours we found out that there was an informal notice for my apprehension and return to England. After finding out everything, I did the only thing I could. I went into hiding with some of Brian's colleagues. There are several underground cells there who work against Voldemort. As a matter of fact, there was an organization working against all the dark lords trying to come up in different parts of the world.

I joined them later and started to try and help the resistance network in the UK as well tried to find ways to get to Harry at Azkaban. We broke in once and several times had some volunteers commit minor crimes to search for Harry. But we could not find him. Though one of the spells I had cast confirmed to me that he was alive but his location was never there.

So I went in and looked for more and more powerful means to find Harry. I guess I succeeded."

Harry was internally smiling at the abridged tale Hermione had told all of them. His legilimency skills were picking up several details and emotions. She had masked all the grief, all the resolve, all the hope and all the despair. She had put her life on hold to find a friend. He also saw that she knew quite a lot more. But perhaps this wasn't the place to ask it.

Hermione looked at Harry. Now having told him her story, it was clear that the million dollar question was what was on her mind. Where the hell had Harry been?

Harry himself was not unaware of the enquiring looks being plastered at him. He looked around and saw the hearts and minds of people around him. Some of them knew only small parts of his story. He looked at them and then looked into himself. He was sure that all of them could be trusted with his life. He just wasn't sure that he had the right to tell them other people's secrets. Closing his eyes, releasing his breadth that he didn't realize he was holding, he made his decision.

He looked around at every one around him. He knew that this was going to be the core group of his fight against Voldemort. This had begun as a favor to the goblins, but maybe it could mean more than that. He started.

"What I am going to let you know is my story. Some of you know parts of it, but not all of it. Even now, I will hold back parts of it which are not mine to share. But before that, I would like to put all of you under an ancient secrecy charm which may not be broken by any means except if you are released from it." He looked up and saw that several of his guests didn't think at anything at all except for Ginny and Blaise. Both of them felt that they were trustworthy enough and careful enough. However, they had squashed this part of the thought. Strangely, Hermione did not find anything wrong with this. When Harry looked more carefully, he saw that she was already bound by two secrecy charms. However, his charm was far more powerful, and would supersede them.

Somewhere at the back of his mind he realized that he would have some trouble with Blaise and Ginny, but it was not something about which he could do much.

He waved his hand in a fluid gesture, or rather a chain of gesture and everyone in the room could feel a sense of comfort and well being fall upon them. Satisfied, Harry made a few more motions and cast several privacy charms.

Harry began his tale. From being thrown into the secret rooms to being found by a high elf. Not only that but the high elf turning out to be his ancestor; his life with his family and the reason for his return. The imbalance and his plans to do something about it. He said nothing about what he intended to do about it because frankly, he wasn't sure anymore. The dynamics were changing very fast. He had thought of doing this job and getting back to his world ASAP. But now, things were getting a tad complicated.

On the other side, there were several emotions that were running through all of the people sitting opposite to Harry. They ranged from a typical mixture of awe, pride, sadness and a very new emotion, love.

No. Harry wasn't much sure of what he was going to do anymore except for one thing. He was going to make Voldemort pay for separating him from his friends. His friends, who were his family. Well some of them anyway.

(((o)))

Several hundred miles away, Ron was asleep in his bed. His wife, Cho was already asleep in her own room. Being a cultured couple, they had long ago decided to adopt the French practice of having separate living quarters. So much so that he had not entered her rooms without permission for years.

Hence he was unaware of the presence of his hated Malfoy very near to his room. He slept, tired, bankrupt and most of all, unaware of the changing times.

(((o)))

In a hidden room of the ministry of magic, one could not help but see the glee filled malice on the face of the minister of magic, Lucius Malfoy. He had a file in his hand and he saw the transaction details of the sale deed of the island of Azkaban.

In all his attention, he failed to see that a copy of the file had just been checked out by the king himself, or that even his file was marked out.


	16. Chapter 16

**The Count of Azkaban**

**Chapter 16**

It had been a nice and happy time for many people in the Castle of Azkaban. With stories exchanged as well as affection, things had sobered down some. Very discretely, blade and Nkola had withdrawn from the group of friends. Further, Blaise and grace were also feeling uncomfortable sitting between the three friends. There was so much history between them that they could feel that they were the outsiders in the group. They were undecided at what to do. The indecision was clearly reflecting in their faces. Being the legilimens that he was, Harry was aware of the gist of their discomfiture.

Harry had lost himself in the last few hours. Rather, he found the part of him that he had long thought lost; the boy in him that had hardly ever lived the life of a child. His safe haven. Away from all the worries of the world. Yet strangely, he felt that this meeting was culminating into a major turn in his life in this realm. All his previous plans may have to be changed. He had decided and done everything as if he would be alone. Blaise had never mattered to the crux of his plans. Yet, Hermione and Ginny were obviously going to play a very big part.

He looked up as he felt the silence and the gazes of every single one of them. He looked up and saw that each one of them felt the same.

(((o)))

In power-plays of politics, there are always people who aspire to be higher, and are in the least bit worried about the corpses that pile up to get them to that height. Lord Voldemort was one and there were several people in the tyranny of the king who aspired to take place of both Draco Malfoy as well as Lucius Malfoy. The king himself had become aware so.

But the way to do it was what was giving him trouble. Although he had been a slytherin, he was more or less a very direct person. In the old days, he would have simply killed them after frying their brains. But now, he was in a very tentative position. His upcoming election had been creating enough distraction for him. But he could not let this pass anyway. It might end up that the very base of his power may weaken beyond salvation. He was happy in one way for all this. As he stood up and conjured a mirror, he liked what he saw. He was slowly becoming into the fierce dark lord that he had once been. The potions had been working overtime during the last few hours. His only apprehension was that he still was only able to reach a very small part of his power.

But he had decided one thing. He wanted to meet this count. He had a feeling that this would be important. For he could see the parallels between both of them. He was the political king and he was the financial king. But the lifestyles they led were very different. He was always worried but the count seemed relatively carefree. After all, to just get away from the center of your powerbase, for so long did require certain control in your staff.

He wanted to know more about this.

So he had just dispatched a letter inviting the count for dinner today night, discretely. And now, he walked towards the personal conference hall where his political advisors and lobbyists had been waiting for him.

(((o)))

The silent was pregnant. The thoughts being borne were numerous. The silent kept deepening until it was Grace who broke it.

"Somebody say something." It was said in an almost exasperated childlike manner. The tension was released as a small smile escaped everybody's lips.

"You are right", started Harry. He knew the importance of this took a deep breath and said "All of us getting together here seem to be work of something more than just a coincidence. It would seem that all the key players of this resistance against the king have come together. Look at Hermione. She used an ancient archway, thought to be nothing more than a fable to find me. More than that, she seems to be a part of some group or has relations with a group which is working either actively or passively against Voldemort. Ginny here, is in the middle of the most political family of the United Kingdom where as Blaise has active involvement with the resistance cells in the Europe. And I, well I am the Harry-bloody-potter who has just come back from death. I think we all have been keeping our true motives from each other and the uncomfortable silence that had just passed over us was the result of the things we are not telling each other, or we cannot tell each other."

Harry stopped a bit and looked around. All four heads were hanging a bit. Each bowed head signified the truth of his words. He felt in his bones that the time had come where each of them had to come clean or else, well he really did not wish to think of that.

"Harr!" all four of them said almost together and said almost half way. They looked at each other and to no ones surprise; it was Hermione who started again.

"I know Harry. It has been my life's mission to find you as soon as I could confirm that you were actually alive. Before that, I had to find out whether you were dead or not. Frankly, I never felt for a day that you had died. There was this odd feeling in me that kept on telling me that you were alive. Then I met with some underground people due to my unique position. It is true that I have hidden many things from you but it's primarily because they are not my secrets to tell. However, I do feel that the information I have is pertinent somehow to all of us. Yet there is one thing that you missed out on telling it all of us. What are you planning to do? We know that you are here to do something. Somehow, revenge doesn't add up. On the contrary, your incarceration was probably the greatest gift riddle has ever given you. You found your family. The balance is already back. So what are you doing here? Somehow, revenge doesn't seem to be the right answer."

Harry was amazed at how quickly and concisely Hermione had cut down to the chase. He was all too much aware of all this. But then, it seemed that every one of them were in the same boat. He looked around and every one of them was having similar thoughts. There was only one thing to do now.

"I guess there is only one thing to do. We are guardians of other people's secrets. Hence we must keep the trust. However, I must ask you to make a decision. Either you can come clear with each other about your position in the war and come to me with a proposal where the information may be shared and used. I can only tell you this. I am here to set things right. To the extant that they are put right is in your hands."

With this, he got up and walked into his room. Very suddenly and surely, he had become aware of the differences that had cropped up between everyone of them. The lives they had led and the paths they had taken had made a vast gulf between all of them. At one point of life, everything had been so simple. They had been friends and that was it. Now, they had matured and distanced. He wasn't sure of what he would do. With that he opened the door and changed into the count's attire and shifted to his private library to take care of his daily business. He smiled as he saw the envelope on the top.

He called for blade.

(((o)))

Back in the den, everything was silent once again. Everybody was looking at each other rather uncomfortably. Suddenly the silence was broken by a small snap. They looked around to see stout standing there. He looked up and said, "The count has asked me to give you these portkeys." He opened up his palm and in it were four boxes very akin to a ring box.

"They are permanent and would bring you back to the den. They are secure and have several safety charms in built. They are your direct way in and out of here. As soon as you enter the castle's area, they also become your portkey out of here. All you've to do is touch the stone and think of where you wish to go."

Everybody nodded as stout gave each of them a box. They opened it and looked at the ring. It was platinum with several runes inscribed on its underside. As soon as they put it on, they felt a pulse of magic go through them and a brief flash. They looked down to the ring and saw that a unique stone had appeared in each of them. A bright sapphire in Hermione's ring; a bright ruby in Ginny's; a pink diamond in Blaise's and a brilliant diamond in grace's ring.

Each of them wondered for a bit, but each was lost in their own thoughts. A few seconds later, after thanking Stout, all of them portkeyed out of the castle.

(((o)))

As soon as blade answered the summon and entered the library, he saw a shadow of twisted smile on Harry's face. He knew the reason for the smile. He had received the letter himself anyway.

_Flashback_

Just as all of them were reveling in each other's company, stout had retreated from the group. He felt as if he was intruding on something sacred. Both Nkola and him silently got up and went to their regular duties. One of his duties was to look and check any miscellaneous mail. Normal wizarding world still lived with owl mail, however, all of them had graduated to more techno-magical products.

Just as he entered to study, he saw a regal looking black owl. The scroll he was carrying carried the imperial seal. He was aware of the plan that had been thought up. As a matter of fact, he himself had accumulated the information on the Malfoys. His range of contacts was growing by the hour. He was paying handsomely after all. Some would say almost too much. But then, the money was always relative.

He put the letter on the counts table on top of everything and waited. He knew he would receive it as soon as the count saw the mail.

He was not disappointed.

_Flashback ends_

"Well what does it say?" he asked.

Harry opened the letter and read it out loud.

"To

The Count of Azkaban

The Isle of Azkaban.

You are cordially invited to dinner in a private session with his majesty, the king of the united wizardry kingdom. The dinner is scheduled for seven in the evening.

For the emperor,

Lord Voldemort,

Secretary K. Trumpet.

PS. The letter will turn into a special portkey at precisely 6:45 PM and will bring you to the private offices of the above signed."

Harry was amazed at the letter and almost laughed at it. This was no proper way to invite somebody to a royal dinner. No RSVP, no protocol. More than that, the language used was utterly immature. 'It must be a truly unique thing" her wondered.

Blade was also laughing at the inadequacies of the letter. Never-the-less, the objective had been achieved.

He nodded and went away.

Harry on the other hand, picked up another dossier after doing some office work and refamiliarised himself with the details. Today was going to be the first step in his plan. He was a bit ambivalent as to what his friends would do, but he could not postpone this. He would not screw up his own plan. Things can be improvised.

With this, he went into deep thought as he looked at the history of many.

(((o)))

Hermione was amazed at the power of the ring. She had not thought about the shields and ward around her office in the states when she thought about going there. Her mind was too preoccupied with the things she had said, and deciding what she had to do. It was an after thought, when the portkeying had already begun that she remembered the wards. But it was too late. She almost resigned herself to the bounce she would receive from the area.

To her amazement, the portkey slid through the wards and she reappeared in her own study. To her amazement, none of the safety charms were tripped and there was no warning alarm blaring. She shook her head and walked out of her office into the lobby and walked toward Brian's office.

As soon as she opened Brian's office, she was amazed to see nearly all department heads there. More than that, as soon as she opened the door, nearly twenty wands were immediately directed at her and a couple of them let loose a stupefy. She was amazed as all of the spells were absorbed by an invisible shield. All the mouths hung open in amazement, including Hermione's.

(((o)))

Ginny appeared directly into her room. She quickly looked outside the window and saw Artie doing some rolls on his broom. "Children!" she thought to herself as she looked amazingly at her son. It had been no more than twenty four hours since he had nearly killed himself and yet here he was back up again. She went in to change and freshen up. Half an hour later, she went on the pitch to see Artie and think things through.

She was still deep in thought when Draco appeared in the house. He had been informed of Ginny's return and wanted to see her. Things were getting late as is.

(((o)))

Both grace and Blaise appeared in a separate part of France. It was the special hideout for any and all people fighting in the global war against the dark lord. They both were in deep thought as well.


	17. Chapter 17

**The Count of Azkaban**

**Chapter 17**

Ginny was sitting, laid back, eyes closed on a comfort chair, basking under the warmth of sun. She had just taken a bath. Her hair was wet and uncombed. A small tray of breakfast had just been laid besides her and she had received the message from Draco. She so much wanted to try and think about why Draco wanted to see her but her heart was not in it. It wanted to embrace the warmth she had felt after meeting Harry after such a long time. She finally had a friend out there. They may have obstacles to surmount and secrets to share before coming anywhere near the closeness they had shared for some time, but she could be at least sure of one thing. He would never betray her. In the world of duplicity and shadows that she lived in now-a-days, it was a luxury nearly no-one had.

She was not aware of the beautiful sight that she was at the moment and so unaware of her surroundings she had become that she never heard Draco knock and enter her room. As he laid his eyes on her, he stopped. Ginevra was looking a vision of beauty; the beauty that he had been smitten by in the very beginning. The fact that she would not have him only made him do half the crazy things he had done in his life. Of course, at that time they were just one of the considerations.

He had thought that this beauty had been lost under the ravages of hardship and betrayals. Now, looking at her, he wondered what had happened yesterday which could have made such a change possible. He briefly wondered about a sexual interlude but brushed it aside. He had more important things to worry about. This was the gamble of his life and he had to seem very sincere about it.

He coughed a little artificial cough to bring Ginny out of which ever dream that she was enjoying.

Ginny on the other hand was in a place of her own, totally free from the predicaments of this plane when she heard a small cough. She opened her eyes and saw Draco standing impatiently near the door, looking at her very strangely. Despite being married for so long, they were rarely alone with each other much. It was uncomfortable for both of them for in each other's eyes, they saw how unfeeling they were towards each other. Had they even hated each other, it would have been better than the unfeeling cold attitude both of them had for each other.

In front of others, a facade was there. But the veil was swept aside during such solo encounters. So much so that both of them consciously tried to avoid them. She wondered what had prompted him to do such an act.

She looked at him squarely in the eye as if asking him to state his purpose for intruding into her privacy. Indeed, if there was one woman who was worthy of being a queen, it was she. Draco simmered under her gaze. Sometimes he wondered if he would have her spirit had the roles been reversed. In rare moments of self analysis, he had accepted that he was not up to the task. Even now, her one look was enough to convey what she wanted to say. The transition from a beautiful angel to a commanding lady was masterful and more than that, natural.

"I will see you in the library in ten minutes." The words were phrased as a command but both of them knew it was actually a request.

She nodded her acceptance and Draco walked out of her room. Ginny remained behind thinking of what was so important that Draco had left his bank in the middle of the day and come home to meet her. He had never ever done that.

Thinking no more about it, still feeling part of the euphoria, she started to get ready and change into Lady Ginevra Malfoy.

(((o)))

Hermione was now sitting in the middle of the meeting. She looked around and saw the expectant faces of many of her colleagues. They were the heads of various clandestine departments of the American wizarding council. They had been meeting to discuss only about her and her sudden disappearance from their magical sensors. Being the head of department of research, she was very important.

After seeing the annexation of Britain by Voldemort, all leading countries had made several clandestine cells to contain him. All of them believed that once he had completely taken over Britain, he would expand over to Europe and then the whole world. There had been several assassination attempts, but all had been thwarted. As he was the monarch, not much could be done overtly. More than that, he was virtually immortal and the most powerful. After all the attempts to find just one single wizard who could defeat Voldemort, they had just found one person who had stopped Voldemort, Harry Potter. Whether it was because of fate or whatever else, it was unclear. The only thing known was that he had been thwarted only by one wizard, Harry Potter.

Hence unlimited funds had been designated to the research departments all over to find him, and most of the hope was pinned on none-other-than the best friend of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger. In her own world of intelligence, Hermione was almost as important as Harry Potter. As such, there was a permanent enchantment on her which showed her location anywhere in the world as well as her vital statistics. However, she had just vanished from somewhere in India and just turned up after a day. She had been checked for spells several times but they had found nothing amiss. Now, she was to tell her side of the story.

Expectedly, Hermione could not speak about Harry at all. There was a kind of spell on her preventing her from doing it. Strange enough, they could not find it during her scans. She was in a jam. But she was sure that Harry would know about this. This new Harry that she had met was far more mature than the Harry she had left behind. There had to be a way. Then it struck her. She could speak of John Edward Smith and the rest was easy.

(((o)))

Ten minutes later, Ginny entered the library. Draco was sitting behind his desk, apparently reading some official looking file. Ginny was not fooled for a second. Her curiosity was being piqued up by the moment. She wondered what had Draco up in such stitches.

"You wished to see me?" Ginny said, sitting down on the sofa rather than on the opposite side of Draco's table. Over the years, she had learned much about control and she no longer wished to play it down.

Draco saw Ginny sit down at the sofa. It was placed in such a fashion that he could continue from where he sat but would loose all the integrity he wanted to put in his speech. He did the only thing he could and stood up from his chair and walked and sat besides Ginny.

"Yes. I wish to discuss something of grave importance with you."

Ginny knew he expected a reaction but she was damned if she would give him one. She looked coolly back at him as if expecting him to continue. Draco on the other hand felt as if a little use of legilimency was in order here. He had tried earlier in the morning but had been stopped by a wall of strength he had never seen before. At that moment, he had let it pass as one of the anomalies which were described in the legilimency manual regarding euphoria. But even now, he felt similar walls surrounding her. Not wanting to get off the topic, he continued.

"We both are aware that the marriage we share is of no great value to both of us. We never loved each other. I will confess today that I went after you only because you said 'no'. I know that the way I went about it was wrong. But that was what I wanted." Ginny was amazed at the candor Draco was showing. They both knew the score but it had never been verbalized before. She was now sure that whatever he wanted, it was big.

Draco looked at Ginny and saw that her cold aloof eyes had turned a bit curious. Thanking his stars and his strategy, he continued. "We both have grown up now and grown wiser. It is apparent to me that you are not happy. That is not the way to live the life that we have been given. So I have an offer to give you."

This was the litmus test for Draco. If at this moment, Ginny got up and started to yell about another woman or any rubbish like that, he knew he had failed. They both had had dalliances above and beyond each other. It was accepted by both of them. Neither of them loved each other. So it was not an issue. Thankfully, there was no outburst.

Fiddling with his chain watch, Draco pitched, "I will agree to an annulment if you could do me a favor." Draco was looking intently at Ginny. Annulment was the magic world. In the wizarding society with archaic rules and laws, the annulment was the only way a couple may legally separate. More than that, it was only the husband who may give an annulment. It was technical only as no annulment had been given in the past several centuries. As all the wizards had a right to polygamy, provided they could afford it, there was no reason for legal separation. More so when the wizarding annulment normally meant that the blame lied with the male spouse and he was doing as an act of atonement. During this annulment, a huge financial settlement was also made towards the female spouse as an act of repatriation.

This definitely had Ginny's interest. Normally she would have not let any notion or emotion leave her, but this was a shocker. She was now sure that whatever he wanted was colossal.

Still not saying a word and keeping Draco on defensive, she said nothing. Draco, not hearing a know took this as an act of acceptance and finally laid it down. He waited until Ginny gave an imperceptible nod.

"You have to convince the count of Azkaban to introduce me to the chairman of le-beau. I shall do the rest." There Draco had said it. Many people would have thought that such a request was not worthy of such an act of planning and desperation between the two spouses. But there were several hidden admissions and power-plays that had not been said.

Everybody knew that no-one and absolutely no-one met the chairman of le beau. It was adequately known that he had hardly met a handful of people since the tenure. As a matter of fact, nearly no-one knew his real identity. It was a known fact that all the people who had ever met the chairman were now the richest of all people in the world. As a matter of fact, they were number one to ten of the worlds richest. Draco wanted nothing more than to be in that elite list. He had felt a certain attraction between the count and his wife earlier. He had assumed the euphoric display Ginevra had displayed a few minutes earlier after being absent for the whole night was because she had been with him. If she accepted, she would accept the dalliance and a sway over the count's actions. The annulment would also render her free and blameless for any further action she may pursue. It was gain all for all of them. The only question was weather she would agree.

Ginny was aware of all this. She knew that she had the power over Draco now. But she also knew that there must be loophole somewhere. Draco must have left something, somewhere for him to control. She remained silent, contemplating.

Seeing that the offer was not out-rightly rejected, Draco went in for the kill.

"I have taken the liberty of making a wizarding contract notating the terms I have just spoken. It also has a verified report as to the nature and amount of settlement I would give you as part of annulment."

Ginny was very guarded at the moment. She took out her wand and checked the agreement for any mind influencing or mind altering charms. There were none. It seemed to be on the up and up. She took the scroll and stood up.

"I will let you know of my decision by tomorrow." That was all she said and she turned around and left the library.

Draco remained behind, tired and emotionally spent. He knew that his next twenty four hours would be the longest of his life.

(((o)))

Voldemort was rereading the counts files. He had asked for more facts on the count through his ambassadors in several other countries and the replies had reached him a while earlier. He now knew a lot about the count and nothing. There were many details about the assumed wealth and power of the count in the financial world, both wizarding and muggle. However, there was nothing which mentioned the strength of his magical acumen. There were no power-readings or even a medical scan report.

He was intrigued.

To have such power and wealth and still be anonymous was something he did not understand. He was the most powerful wizard in the history of wizarding world, the heir of slytherin, yet even he did not have all information about himself in such closed security. He had been informed that most of this information and been very hard to get.

He was looking forward to meeting the count.

(((o)))

At exactly quarter before seven, Harry stood in his impeccable clothes, with all the accessories. He looked not only extremely handsome, but powerful as well. The staff in his hand was a very old relic from his days at his real home. It wasn't his real staff, but it had its own purposes.

It was exactly like this that the portkey activated and he felt a pull at his navel. Had it been the Harry of old, he would have felt disoriented and more probably than not, would have fell down upon reaching the destination. However, he now knew the secret of portkeys. They created a tunnel between spaces. It was very much like a wormhole that the muggles have been theorizing. The trick was not to flay around when you are in the air. If you stay still, you reach your destination in the same position that you left it.

So it was at exactly at 6:45 pm, that the invitation portkey, which resided inside the inner pocket of his robe, that Harry potter appeared in the offices of the secretary to Voldemort.

On his way in, Harry had used his magical senses and felt the wards which had been negotiated by the special portkey. He was impressed by the utter amount and quality of wards which had been put up. More than that, there had been several layers of them. First he had felt the normal muggle repellant wards followed by several security charms which were normal for a ministry building to have. Then as soon as he had moved towards the upper floor which housed the offices and living quarters of Voldemort, there had been several other blood wards as well as a very obscure ward. He remembered it as one of the lost wards of the ancients. It scanned the intentions of the entrant. If they were of causing harm to the beneficiary of the wards, they would not let you through.

After passing through several more wards, he had been placed at the entrance of offices where a small, mousy man sat at the desk. Harry's blood nearly boiled and he very nearly lost control of his magic as he saw the betrayer of his parents and the reason for his suffering childhood. For here sat, with a changed name, Wormtail aka Peter Pettigrew.

**Author's notes**

The story is going to get faster from now on. I hope you like how it's shaping up. I know I have left the fate of several key figures untold, but all will be revealed very soon.

_**gt**_


End file.
